Mariners Still Need Martinez Bat Star Will Return After Another Loss To Twins

With Edgar Martinez out of the lineup for the past three weeks with fractured ribs, the Seattle Mariners’ offensive production has been cut nearly in half.

Against Minnesota on Sunday in the Kingdome, Seattle once again was stagnant at the plate against Twins starter Brad Radke.

Scoring just three runs, the Mariners lost their season-high sixth in a row, 6-3, in front of 36,114 spectators.

Seattle manager Lou Piniella hopes the effect a missing Martinez has had on the Seattle offense will be reversed when Martinez is activated from the disabled list for the game tonight against Kansas City.

“We’ll get Edgar back tomorrow,” Piniella said Sunday. “Hopefully, that will give us a lift. We need it.”

Seattle has scored only 34 runs in its last nine games, an average of 3.8 runs a game compared to the 6.39 runs a game it was averaging when this tailspin began. The Mariners’ only victory in the last nine games came on Aug. 4, when they broke out for nine runs against Detroit.

“We need a spark to get this thing turned around,” Piniella said.

Martinez, who was hitting .334 when he collided with John Marzano chasing a pop fly at California on July 20, took about 75 swings in batting practice Sunday.

“I feel like I can go and do it,” he said. “I told him (Piniella) I was ready to go.”

Martinez said he couldn’t quite decide whether the team’s funk has instigated a quicker-than-necessary return.

“The fact that we’re not doing as well right now, that really doesn’t make a difference,” he said before thinking. “It kind of has to do with choosing to try it.”

Without Martinez, Piniella has shuffled the lineup to try and make up for the loss in offensive production. Sunday, Rich Amaral, who was hitting .366 over his last 28 games, moved up to the No. 2 spot in the order, forcing Alex Rodriguez down to No. 3 for the first time and Ken Griffey Jr. to the cleanup spot.

Amaral and Rodriguez each went 0-for-4 in their new roles.

At least, the only runs the new lineup was able to produce tied a major league record.

Griffey and Jay Buhner hit back-to-back drives into the seats off of Radke in the sixth inning. It was the 16th time this year Seattle hitters have combined consecutive home-run trots.

Only the 1977 Boston Red Sox and 1982 Milwaukee Brewers previously accomplished that feat.

The solo shots, Griffey’s into the upper deck in right field and Buhner’s over the wall in left-center, were the only good swings Seattle connected on against Radke, who won his third consecutive decision.

Seattle tacked on a run in the ninth inning on a pinch-hit single by Alex Diaz, but its one-in, two-on, no-out rally was snuffed when another pinch-hitter, Doug Strange, grounded into a double play on the first pitch.

A double play had ended the Mariners’ first scoring opportunity. Marzano hit into an around-the-horn special with the bases loaded in the second.

After that, Radke settled in behind a lead that resulted when Minnesota reached Bob Wells for three runs in the fourth after Wells had faced the minimum amount of batters through 3-2/3 innings.

“Radke pitched good for us,” Twins manager Tom Kelly said. “He hung a curve to Griffey and hung a curve to Buhner, but bounced back the next inning and did a nice job.”

The home runs were the 27th and 28th Radke has given up, the most in the major leagues.

Radke left after surrendering Paul Sorrento’s leadoff single in the ninth. The outing equaled his longest of the season. He also tied his season high with eight strikeouts.

“Radke deserves all the credit for keeping the Mariners shut down and giving us a chance to win,” Kelly said.

The victory was Minnesota’s sixth in a row, the best current string in the majors. It gave the Twins their first series sweep in the Kingdome since 1983.