Mariners Trippin’ On Power Homerdome An Apt Name As Seattle On Record Pace

The Kansas City Royals were muttering to themselves after a weekend of being buffeted by the Seattle Mariners’ extra-base attack.

“It’s a joke the way the ball is flying off the bat here; it’s pathetic,” said Doug Linton, the Royals’ starting pitcher Sunday.

“This little bandbox,” manager Bob Boone said of the Kingdome. “I can’t believe Edgar Martinez doesn’t hit a thousand doubles here.”

The Mariners collected a total of six home runs and 16 doubles in beating up the Royals 11-1 and 8-5 Saturday and Sunday.

Alex Rodriguez’s two home runs in the series finale gave Seattle 65 in its first 37 games, a home-run pace that would shatter the 1961 New York Yankees’ record of 240.

If the Mariners keep up their imitation of a slowpitch softball team in the season’s first six weeks, they’re going to wind up with 285 homers.

And this is a club that traded away Tino Martinez and Mike Blowers - who combined for 54 homers - after the Mariners won the A.L. West title last season.

Ken Griffey Jr. leads an outstanding power cast that includes Jay Buhner and Paul Sorrento.

“Pretty much everybody is contributing,” said two-time A.L. batting champion Edgar Martinez.

The Mariners, who open a road trip at Yankee Stadium tonight, have gotten 10 homers each from Sorrento, Buhner and Griffey in their 20-17 start. Martinez has nine, Dan Wilson eight and Rodriguez six.

They haven’t just been hitting homers in the Kingdome, either. In 13 road games, they have 21 homers, compared to 44 in 24 games at home.

“It is an amazing pace,” Seattle’s Darren Bragg said. “Basically, you just look for a ball you can drive, and we’ve been getting a lot of balls we can drive.”

There are plenty of theories:

The pitching is diluted because of expansion.

The velocity of A.L. pitchers is down.

The ball is livelier than ever.

The umpires are squeezing the pitchers with a small strike zone.

The players are getting more bat speed with lighter bats.

But in their fourth season under Lou Piniella, last season’s A.L. manager of the year, the Mariners are bigger and stronger. At Piniella’s direction, they’re using dumbbells to make pitchers dumb struck.

“Our kids are big and strong,” Piniella said. “That’s a good part of the reason.”

Martinez, 33, a former third baseman now the designated hitter, has turned himself into a fireplug in the weight room. The 26-year-old Bragg, who is trying to become Seattle’s everyday left fielder, has a physique of a body builder.

“On this team alone, a lot of players are in the weight room after a game,” Bragg said. “You’ve got to get every edge you can.”

Without Griffey for 73 games last season, the Mariners had a team-record 182 homers, including Buhner with a career-high 40. Griffey had 17 in 72 games. He led the A.L. in the strike-shortened 1994 season with 40 after hitting 45 in ‘93.

Sorrento, a first baseman, who was signed as a free agent in January after Tino Martinez was traded to the New York Yankees, already has hit two balls into the Kingdome’s third deck.

Sorrento was a member of a Cleveland Indians team that featured home-run champion Albert Belle (50) last season. Sorrento had 25 homers as a part-time player.

He loves his new team.

“It’s an awesome lineup,” Sorrento said. “One through nine, we have punch throughout the lineup. We’ve swung the bats pretty well all year.”