Torres Joins Rotation Roulette As Red Sox Pound M’S, 10-1
After pitching a spotless 5-2/3 innings of relief last week, Salomon Torres on Thursday entered the free-fire zone that has become the Seattle Mariners’ rotation this season.
The verdict? He looked great in the bullpen …
Making his first start of the season, the 40th of his big league career, the 24-year-old right-hander took a shutout against Boston into the third inning - and then began pitching like a man who belonged in the Seattle rotation.
Torres gave up a run in the third, another in the fourth and then was buried in a landslide of Red Sox offense as Boston pummeled him and beat the Mariners, 10-1.
“This is the opposite of the Dow Jones,” manager Lou Piniella said. “A rising Dow is good. A rising earned-run average isn’t good. I’d like to see one game where our ERA goes down. I’d like to see a bit of the bear instead of the bull.”
It didn’t happen against Boston, and by the end of the night Piniella was owner of a pitching staff with a team ERA of 5.48.
“Next to Detroit, we’re at the bottom of the league,” Piniella said. “We can’t ask this team to score 10 runs a night just to stay competitive.”
That’s what it would have taken. Dominated for nine innings by Tom Gordon - a man who began the night with a 6.58 ERA the Mariners didn’t get a hit until Paul Sorrento’s solo home run banged off the upper deck facade in right field in the fifth.
They didn’t get another until Sorrento singled in the eighth.
That was the offense, those two hits. If the Mariners have proven anything this season, it is that, without Randy Johnson, they cannot win games in which they do not pile up runs.
Backed by only two hits, it may not have mattered what Torres did against Boston, although keeping his team within a touchdown might have scored some points with manager Lou Piniella. As it is, the worst aspect of Torres’ dismal outing was that it didn’t stand out.
Consider the men with whom he shares the rotation:
Sterling Hitchcock - 5.30 ERA.
Bob Wolcott - 6.09 ERA
Paul Menhart - 6.82 ERA.
Bob Milacki - 6.00 ERA.
Take a group picture and Torres, with a 6.55 ERA, fits right in. Therein lies a problem the Mariners seem unable to solve. They have lost Johnson indefinitely. They have lost Chris Bosio, probably for good.
“Our options are limited,” Piniella said. “My preference would be to let these five starters pitch, but we can’t continue to give up six, seven runs a game.”
Seattle’s choices?
“(Matt) Wagner is getting closer and closer,” Piniella said of the Tacoma Rainiers right-hander. “And here, hell - we may bring Rafael Carmona out of the bullpen and start him, bring Bob Wells out. I hate to do that because they’ve done the job in relief.
“These pitchers are getting a great opportunity. Some will grind it out and have the chance to have fine major league careers. Others will fall by the wayside and continue to struggle - elsewhere.”
Torres got into the fifth trailing 2-0, then loaded the bases with two outs for Jose Canseco.
“I tried to think about every pitch I threw tonight, and I did pretty good for three, four innings,” Torres said. “Against Canseco, I tried to come inside, but I lost it and left it out over the plate.”
Canseco’s fifth career grand slam put Boston ahead 6-0.
The crowd of 17,395, told early in the game that the NBA Sonics had been blown out, watched a game that - baseball-style - was no closer.