M’S Crank Four, Blast Royals 11-1
Lou Piniella has his own idea about why the Seattle Mariners are hitting home runs at a record pace.
It’s Piniella’s warm-bodies-in-the-Kingdome theory.
“We’ve been getting more people in here,” Piniella said after the Mariners hit four homers in an 11-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals Saturday night.
“I’m serious,” Piniella said. “When this place here gets some body warmth, the ball does jump more when there’s more body warmth in here than when the place is empty.”
Jay Buhner hit two home runs and tied his career best with six RBIs as the Mariners broke a six-game Royals’ winning streak and ended their own three-game losing skid.
Paul Sorrento and Alex Rodriguez also homered for the Mariners, giving them a major-league high 63 in 36 games. Buhner hit his ninth and 10th homers, Sorrento his 10th and Rodriguez his fourth.
In addition to their four homers, the Mariners matched a club record with eight doubles, three by Edgar Martinez to tie a club record, in a 17-hit attack.
There were 43,297 fans in the Kingdome to see the Mariners hike their Kingdome home-run total to 38 in 23 home dates. The Mariners are averaging 33,339 fans at home this year, which would give them a club-record 2.7 million fans in 1996.
Kansas City manager Bob Boone and Martinez liked Piniella’s theory.
“It gets warmer with a lot of people here, that helps,” Boone said. “Joey Cora sticks his bat out there and it hits the warning track.”
“That was a good game for us and Jay had a great night,” Martinez said. “Pretty much everybody contributed.”
That includes the crowd, according to Martinez.
“When there’s a lot of people here, maybe the ball travels more,” he said.
The Mariners broke a three-game losing skid as Bob Wolcott (2-5) got his first win since April 14. Wolcott, pitching on three days’ rest, went the first five innings and Rafael Carmona followed with four hitless innings for his first save this season.
Buhner had a two-run homer in the second inning, Rodriguez a solo shot in the third and Sorrento a two-run homer in the fifth off former teammate Tim Belcher (3-2).
“When we do the things we’re capable of doing, we’re going to win a lot of games,” Sorrento said.
xxxx Mariners 11, Royals 1 Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Damon cf 5 0 2 0 0 1 .261 TGoodwin lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .268 Norman lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .150 Lockhart 2b 3 0 2 0 1 1 .293 Hamelin dh 3 0 0 1 1 1 .185 Tucker rf 2 0 0 0 2 1 .235 Stynes 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .467 Offerman 1b 0 0 0 0 2 0 .313 Paquette ss 1 0 0 0 0 0 .243 Macfarlane c 3 0 0 0 1 0 .195 DHoward ss 3 1 1 0 0 0 .252 Vitiello 1b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .254 Totals 30 1 6 1 7 6 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Bragg lf 5 0 1 1 0 1 .333 ARodriguez ss 5 2 2 1 0 1 .284 Griffey Jr cf 5 0 1 0 0 0 .250 EMartinez dh 4 3 3 0 1 1 .331 Buhner rf 4 3 4 6 1 0 .298 1-Amaral pr-rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .206 Sorrento 1b 5 1 1 2 0 1 .250 DWilson c 5 0 1 0 0 0 .273 Cora 2b 4 1 3 0 0 0 .224 RDavis 3b 3 1 1 1 1 1 .262 Totals 40 11 17 11 3 5 Kansas City 000 010 000 - 1 6 0 Seattle 021 130 31x - 11 17 0 1-ran for Buhner in the 8th. LOBKansas City 10, Seattle 8. 2B-Lockhart (8), Bragg (1), ARodriguez (11), EMartinez 3 (16), Buhner (8), Cora (6), RDavis (7). HR-ARodriguez (4) off Belcher; Buhner 2 (10) off Belcher, Pugh; Sorrento (10) off Belcher. RBIsHamelin (14), Bragg (4), ARodriguez (18), Buhner 6 (31), Sorrento 2 (25), RDavis (13). SB-RDavis (2). S-Offerman. GIDPDamon. Runners left in scoring position-Kansas City 6 (Damon, Hamelin 2, Tucker, Stynes 2); Seattle 6 (Bragg, ARodriguez, Sorrento, DWilson 2, RDavis). Runners moved up-TGoodwin, Hamelin, Sorrento. DP-Kansas City 1 (TGoodwin and Lockhart); Seattle 2 (Cora), (ARodriguez and Sorrento). Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Belcher L, 3-2 4-1/3 9 7 7 3 2 93 4.44 Pugh 1-2/3 3 2 2 0 0 27 10.80 Jacome 2 5 2 2 0 3 51 8.20 Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wolcott W, 2-5 5 6 1 1 4 1 82 5.44 Carmona S, 1 4 0 0 0 3 5 63 1.50 Pugh pitched to 2 batters in the 7th. Inherited runners-scored-Pugh 1-0. WP-Pugh. Umpires-Home, Cederstrom; First, Reilly; Second, Craft; Third, Garcia. T-2:49. A-43,297 (59,166).