M’S Can’t Shake Off Mini-Skid Earthquake-Induced Rumblings Stop, But Cleveland Sweep Keeps Seattle Reeling

They are not losing badly, by huge scores or for any single reason, but the Seattle Mariners are losing - and they can’t seem to stop.

A team whose record (16-13) remains the best it’s ever been after 29 games, the Mariners could be viewed as a solid team in a mini-slump.

After losing two games to the Cleveland Indians on Friday, one of them an earthquake-interrupted contest picked up in the seventh inning, Seattle has lost nine of its last 12 games.

Cleveland won the suspended game 6-4, then broke open a tie game in the sixth inning when Julio Franco homered against Sterling Hitchcock to win the regularly scheduled contest 5-2.

And tonight, the Mariners face Cleveland again - using a starting pitcher with a 9.86 earned-run average.

“We’re playing one of the best teams in baseball,” Jay Buhner said. “If we’re going to win, we can’t just win with our veterans, we’ve got to win with some of our kids, too.”

Who will stop the skid? It won’t be Randy Johnson, at least not soon. And it might not be the Cleveland Indians, once again the team with baseball’s best record (19-8).

Immediately after the second game, the players had a meeting in which they reminded one another - pointedly - about doing the small things that help win games. And about having fun.

“We’ve got the capabilities, we know that,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “We’re just not playing up to them. We know we can, that’s why we played so well early. We just got away from things a little bit.”

“We talked about having fun again,” Buhner said of the meeting. “To have fun, you have to win.”

All season, the Mariners have acknowledged that their greatest offensive strength - power - can also present a glaring weakness. When they don’t hit home runs, they don’t score much. And as the first-game loss to the Indians proved, even when they do hit home runs they might not score enough runs.

Home runs by Edgar Martinez, Buhner and Paul Sorrento in that interrupted game left Seattle with the major league lead (49) in homers, but this time three home runs produced just four runs.

And when that first-game loss was tagged on Bob Wolcott (1-4), it continued a rather alarming trend that has plagued the Mariners all year.

In games started by Johnson, Hitchcock or Chris Bosio, the Mariners were 14-3. In games started by Wolcott, the starter tonight - Paul Menhart - or Edwin Hurtado, the record is 2-9.

Then the Indians beat Hitchcock.

So the players held a players-only meeting and the Mariners made more changes. Outfielder Brian Hunter will join the team today from Class AAA Tacoma. What does he bring with him? More power.

“We’ve lost nine of 12 games? So what,” Buhner insisted. “If we win nine of the next 12, you guys will be in here asking us how we did that, too. It’s a long season. When we get back to the little things, we’ll be fine.”

They couldn’t do the small things Friday and it cost them two games. Picking up where they left off Thursday - bottom of the seventh inning, one man on base, one out and Cleveland ahead 6-3 - the Mariners brought the tying run to the plate almost immediately.

Doug Strange pinch-hit for Dan Wilson, who wasn’t even in the state, and singled. But neither Russ Davis nor Alex Diaz could bring home even one of the two base runners.

And the one play a crowd of 38,086 might remember Friday wasn’t even by a Mariner, although it brought home the first Seattle run of the second game. With Davis at third base after a John Marzano double, a Charles Nagy pitch in the dirt trickled away from catcher Tony Pena.

It didn’t roll far, just a few feet, but when Pena grabbed it by using his catcher’s mask and not his hand, manager Lou Piniella came flying out of the Seattle dugout in protest. After a quick conference, plate umpire Jim McKean waved Davis home from third base - and Pena was charged with an error for using the wrong equipment to catch a ball.

That run tied the game, and when Rich Amaral scored Marzano with a ground ball a few moments later, Seattle led 2-1. Hitchcock couldn’t hold the lead, then couldn’t preserve the tie and lost for the first time this season.