Mariners Crush Rangers, 19-8 Open Three-Game Showdown By Pounding A.L. West Leaders

It was not so much that the Mariners were trying to make a statement as they were trying to find a lead that would hold up.

In the end, they did both - winning the first game of a three-game showdown with the division-leading Texas Rangers with a 22-hit Kingdome salute that produced a 19-8 victory.

“Since we’re the team doing the chasing, it was more important for us to win the first game than for them,” manager Lou Piniella said. “But this wasn’t like most games where you score 19 runs and know it’s over …”

An indication of how this game went? Closer Norm Charlton was asked at what point he was certain he wouldn’t have to pitch Friday.

“I never was,” he said, and he meant it.

Two teams built on offense discarded the starting pitchers almost immediately and got down to the serious business of butting heads early. A Texas victory would have given the Rangers a seven-game lead in the American League West. A Mariners victory cut that lead to five games.

Texas ace Roger Pavlik - an All-Star candidate who came in with a 10-1 record - faced 11 batters, retired two of them, and departed. Seattle rookie Bob Wolcott lasted more than twice as long. He got five outs, although he had to pitch to 12 Rangers to get those.

After one inning, it was 7-0, Seattle.

After two, it was 7-3, and no one in the Kingdome crowd of 34,413 thought that lead was enough. And it wouldn’t have been. Nor did it seem when the Mariners pushed ahead, 10-3.

Not when the Rangers score three runs in the fifth inning and their cleanup hitter - Juan Gonzalez - just missed the left-field foul pole for what would have been a home run good for three more runs.

“That ball goes out, this game is a nail-biter,” Piniella said.

When Seattle’s third pitcher of the night, Bobby Ayala, began warming up to come into the game in the sixth inning, the Mariners finally exploded, producing a lead not even Texas could tinker with.

An eight-run fifth inning that featured a club record-tying nine hits - including home runs by Edgar Martinez and Brian Hunter - put Seattle ahead 18-6.

Given that 12-run cushion, Ayala did what no pitcher had done all night. He retired the side in order in an inning “The toughest games in the world to pitch are the ones where you’re way ahead or way behind,” Charlton said. “You’re not working on adrenaline then and the hitter still is.”

Clearly, it wasn’t a night for pitching heroics, and Wolcott’s ineffectiveness may have been more embarrassing than anything.

“He wasn’t locating, he hasn’t been locating his pitches,” Piniella said. “You look at Dan Wilson behind the plate, where he sets up, he always has to reach for the pitch. I’m going to ask Wolcott to come up with a forkball, something to help him with left-handed hitters. He’s still learning. And he’s still in the rotation.”

A team scores 19 runs, it doesn’t figure its bullpen is going to have to work 7-1/3 innings. But this is 1996. These are the Mariners. Which means when they win, they win with offense.

“Winning the first game against them, hitting as well as we did, I think that means something to both teams,” Martinez said. “We’re chasing them and we took the game to them tonight.”

Along with matching the team record for runs in a game, the Mariners got a franchise record-tying five hits from Luis Sojo - who came in batting .211 - and four hits, four RBIs and a team-record-tying two triples from Joey Cora and an RBI from every Seattle starter except Rich Amaral.

And Amaral scored three times.

“Everybody hit tonight and, fortunately, we did a little more hitting than they did,” Piniella said. “Some guys who haven’t been swinging well lately got hot, like Luis.”

Why did Sojo start over, say, left-handed hitting Doug Strange at third base? Piniella cracked a smile.

“Just a hunch,” he said. “A calculated hunch.”

The victory went to to reliever Rafael Carmona (4-0), and before it was over the Mariners had been forced to use Carmona, Ayala, Lee Guetterman and Blas Minor to finish the game Wolcott couldn’t hold on to.

“Whatever it takes,” Charlton said with a shrug. “If it takes 19 runs, so what? As long as you get ‘em, that’s all that counts. It ain’t the how that matters.”

No, it’s supposed to be the how much. And today, the Mariners are five games back of the Rangers instead of seven.

“It’s a good way to start a tough 10 days,” Piniella said.