Mariners Throw Rookie Into Fire Wolcott Has Only Arm Available, Faces Veteran Martinez Tonight

On the eve of the American League Championship Series opener, it should come as no surprise that the Seattle Mariners have tinkered with their pitching staff.

Following a season in which they ran 24 arms through the mill - and to the mound - the Mariners found a way to add rookie pitcher Bob Wolcott to the ALCS roster. Dropped was little-used outfielder Warren Newson.

And, this being a Lou Piniella team, Wolcott will go to work immediately, starting Game 1 tonight against the Cleveland Indians.

The reasoning was simple: No other Mariner was ready to pitch after an exhausting, all-out effort that produced the decisive victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday.

In that game, the Mariners used Andy Benes, Norm Charlton and Randy Johnson - and had Tim Belcher warm up in four innings.

That left only one possible starter available tonight, Chris Bosio, and he had lasted just two innings against New York on Saturday.

Piniella’s juggling act produced a 10-man pitching staff in which the Mariners will start Wolcott, Belcher, Johnson and Benes in the first four games of the ALCS, with a six-man relief corps that will include Bosio.

“We knew before the final Yankees game we were going to be short on pitchers,” Piniella said, “but you have to get here before it’s a problem. It was the same way last week - that one-game playoff with California completely changed the rotation for the Yankees series, but we had to do what we had to do just to get there.”

Now, the Mariners are here, and if that starting rotation doesn’t intimidate the Indians, or overwhelm the fans, it’s nothing new to Seattle baseball in 1995.

In this series, the Mariners weren’t looking for a pitcher to dominate the Indians. They were looking for pitchers tough enough to survive some rough innings and get the team deep into a game while still close.

Veterans Belcher, Johnson and Benes have each shown the capacity to do that, but what will oddsmakers make of veteran Dennis Martinez and his 213 major league victories against rookie Wolcott and his … three wins?

Piniella doesn’t care.

“In a seven-game series, you can look at it this way. If we win one of the two games here, we’ve got the Big Unit pitching Game 3 in Cleveland - and that’s no picnic,” Piniella said. “If you only win one here and one there, that still brings us back home for the final two games with the chance to win the series. No matter how it works, that’s all you ask for. The chance to win it at home.”

Virtually everyone on the staff is available for duty tonight, although the Mariners would love not to have to use Charlton for more than an inning.

And Bobby Ayala, the closer who led the team with 19 saves - and lost first his role and then his job in the Yankees series - could pitch again.

“He’s going to figure in this series,” Piniella said. “If we can get him right, the forkball is a weapon against right- and left-handed hitters. I told Bobby he’s going to pitch this series, to be ready.”