M’S Hope Second Jr. Can Help Out Seattle Calls Up Jose Cruz Jr.; Cora’s Streak Comes To An End In Loss

If it were a bit easier to get from Albuquerque to Seattle, Jose Cruz Jr. might have gotten the chance to prevent the Seattle Mariners’ 5-2 loss to Detroit on Friday at the Kingdome.

Instead, the latest disturbing setback seemed only to add to the importance to Cruz’s call-up from Tacoma.

“Maybe it will give us a spark,” said shortstop Alex Rodriguez of the recall of Cruz, who will make his major league debut tonight when he starts in left field as the Mariners play host to the Tigers again at 6:05 p.m.

Mariners manager Lou Piniella said Cruz would have been in the lineup Friday night had he been able to get out of Albuquerque.

“We’ve been waiting for him for a while,” Piniella said of Cruz, who was the Mariners’ first pick, and the third overall selection, in the 1995 draft. Cruz was hitting .268 with six homers and 30 RBIs for Tacoma, rallying after a slow start to the season.

Cruz will bat second tonight and John Marzano will catch instead of Dan Wilson, who has been batting second for a week. Piniella wasn’t sure where Cruz will bat when Wilson is in the lineup.

“He’s been starting to swing the bat well,” Piniella said. “We’re going to bring him up and let the young man play. We need to get some production out of that position.”

The Mariners got little production out of any position Friday night in front of a generally somber Kingdome crowd of 32,305. The fans didn’t even have Joey Cora to cheer about as Seattle was handcuffed by Felipe Lira and three Detroit relievers.

Cora saw his club-record hitting streak end at 24 games after he grounded out, lined out, flew out and walked in four times at the plate.

Cora’s last chance ended when he walked on four pitches from Dan Miceli to lead off the eighth.

“He showed his unselfishness there,” Piniella said.

The Mariners were down 4-2 at the time, and the walk looked like it might be a rally starter when Wilson followed by fouling off pitch after pitch in working the count full.

But Wilson hit a hard grounder that third baseman Travis Fryman turned into an around-the-horn double play.

It was that kind of night for the Mariners, who have lost 11 of their past 15 and 12 of their past 18. When Jeff Fassero starts, they have lost four in a row and six of seven, though not usually because of his effort.

Fassero was a little bit good and a little bit bad in his 7-1/3-inning, 130-pitch stint. He struck out nine, his Mariners high, but also allowed eight hits, three walks and tied a team record with three wild pitches. Those all came in Detroit’s two-run sixth inning.

The game turned on a couple of seemingly innocuous plays - a failure to complete a pickoff of Brian Hunter in the fourth inning and the failure to turn a double play in the eighth inning. Rodriguez tried to get two and got none instead.

Each miscue led to Detroit runs.

Also costly was Cora’s third at-bat when he flew out to left in the fifth. Russ Davis tried to score from third on the play to put the Mariners ahead 3-1, but was thrown out on a perfect toss from Bobby Higginson.

“Those three plays were the difference,” Piniella said.

The Mariners’ highlight came early as Ken Griffey Jr. hit a breaking ball from Lira off the right-field foul pole for a solo home run, his 24th of the year.

If Griffey hits a home run tonight in the Mariners’ 54th game, he will have hit 25 faster than anyone in big league history - Babe Ruth hit 25 in 55 games in 1928.