Jr.’S Slam Dunks Texas And Seattle’s Shaky Bullpen Does The Job After Wolcott Falters In Sixth Inning
He might yet challenge Roger Maris, he is the unquestioned force that moves Seattle forward and on Friday night Ken Griffey Jr. hit a grand slam that propelled the Mariners to a victory.
How does he keep a level head?
Junior was in the clubhouse talking to the media after Seattle had beaten the Texas Rangers 5-4 when his 3-year-old son, Trey, burst through the group and into his father’s lap.
“Daddy,” he said, “you struck out.”
“What else did I do tonight?” Griffey asked.
Trey stared into space, then went back to basics.
“Daddy,” he said again. “You struck out.”
“This,” Griffey said, smiling at his son, “is what I hear every damned night.”
It is a time for laughter among the Seattle Mariners, who are 13-4 this month and sitting atop a three-game lead in the American League West. Griffey’s 28th home run of the season pushed his RBI total to 76 (801 in his career) and put the M’s ahead in this one, 5-0.
But Griffey and his teammates have been ahead before, and once they had taken that fifth-inning lead against Bobby Witt and the Rangers, many of them shared the same question their fans were asking.
Could they hold on?
That they did was the result of a four-man run through the final five innings - a relay in which starter Bob Wolcott stumbled and handed his bullpen a one-run lead with 12 outs left.
“Wolcott gave us four excellent innings,” manager Lou Piniella said, “but then he was a different pitcher. There’s no reason for him to lose his stuff between the fourth and fifth inning. He has to get us deeper into the game.”
Wolcott gave up two runs in the fifth inning, then yielded a double and Lee Stevens’ ninth home run with no one out in the bottom of the sixth to cut Seattle’s lead from 5-0 to 5-4.
Disgusted, Piniella went to his bullpen, knowing that closer Bobby Ayala - who’d worked two innings on Thursday - was all but unavailable.
“We had hoped we wouldn’t have to go to the pen so early …” Piniella said.
The first reliever brought in was Bob Wells, who entered with a 8.17 earned-run average. He shut Texas down for 1-1/3 innings.
Next came Norm Charlton (7.56 ERA), and the left-hander pitched a perfect 1-2/3 innings to get the game to the ninth inning.
Should Piniella stay with Charlton?
“If I take him out after the eighth, I can use him again (Saturday),” Piniella said, “and we had Scott (Sanders) ready.”
That’s Sanders, a man with one American League save in his career - a three-inning job against Los Angeles last weekend; Sanders, a man with a 6.84 ERA.
“I knew the situation all day, because Bobby (Ayala) had gone two innings and this was probably my game in the ninth if we needed me,” Sanders said. “All my career, people have said I had a closer’s mentality, a closer’s stuff. I kind of like the job, but if Lou asks me to setup I’ll do that. And if he asks me to go back to the rotation at some point, I’ll do that.”
What he did Friday was work out of a one-out, runner at second base jam, striking out Mark McLemore and then retiring Ivan Rodriguez on a grounder to shortstop.
“We tend to play games that are in question ‘til the last out,” Griffey said. “Ain’t nothing wrong with that as long as we win.”
Despite a two-game blip in San Francisco, Seattle has been doing that with regularity this month. The Mariners have gained six games in the A.L. West standings to build a three-game lead over Texas.
“We’ve all heard their bullpen is their weakness,” Rangers starter Witt said, “but I haven’t seen it. They made all the pitches they had to tonight.”
Mariners 5, Rangers 4 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Cora 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .344
Cruz Jr lf 3 1 0 0 1 1 .262
Ducey lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .222
Griffey Jr cf 3 1 1 4 1 1 .300
EMartinez dh 4 1 1 0 0 0 .250
Buhner rf 3 0 0 0 1 0 .233
Sorrento 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .284
DaWilson c 4 0 1 1 0 2 .281
RDavis 3b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .300
Espinoza ss 4 1 1 0 0 1 .200
Totals 32 5 7 5 3 7 Texas AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
McLemore 2b 4 0 0 0 1 1 .218
IRodriguez c 5 0 2 1 0 0 .341
Greer lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .329
JuGonzalez rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .242
Newson rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .252
WClark 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .353
Palmer 3b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .246
LStevens dh 4 1 1 2 0 1 .272
Buford cf 2 1 1 0 1 0 .219
a-DCedeno ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 .262
Gil ss 3 1 1 0 0 1 .235
Totals 34 4 8 3 2 4
Seattle 010 040 000 - 5 Texas 000 022 000 - 4
a-singled for Buford in the 9th.
E-Griffey Jr (3), Espinoza (2). LOB-Seattle 4, Texas 7. 2B-Cora (22), IRodriguez (21), Palmer (16). HR-LStevens (9) off Wolcott; Griffey Jr (28) off Witt. RBIs-Griffey Jr 4 (76), DaWilson (29), IRodriguez (35), LStevens 2 (32). CS-Buford (2). S-Gil. GIDP-Sorrento.
Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 2 (Espinoza 2); Texas 4 (IRodriguez, Greer, WClark 2).
DP-Texas 1 (Gil and WClark).
Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
Wolcott W,3-4 5 6 4 3 2 1 93 5.75
BWells 1-1/3 1 0 0 0 1 13 7.76
Charlton 1-2/3 0 0 0 0 1 14 7.20
SSanders S, 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 13 6.71 Texas IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
Witt L,8-4 6 7 5 5 3 3 111 4.06
Gunderson 1 0 0 0 0 1 15 1.80
XHernandez 2 0 0 0 0 3 24 3.11
Wolcott pitched to 2 batters in the 6th.
HBP-by Wolcott (JuGonzalez), by Witt (Sorrento). WP- Witt.
T-2:53. A-46,013 (49,166).