Piniella Manages To Thrive Win Over Red Sox, His 234th, Places M’S Skipper Ahead Of Lefebvre In Seattle Baseball History

Now he belongs to the ages…

Lou Piniella shifted uncomfortably in his chair, told that by virtue of Seattle’s 6-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, he’d managed the Mariners to more victories than anyone in franchise history.

“There’s a feeling of accomplishment,” Piniella said after his 234th victory in a Seattle uniform. “But I didn’t exactly pass Miller Huggins…”

The room exploded in laughter - Piniella’s included - and then his eyes widened.

“I didn’t mean that in a disrespectful way of Jim Lefebvre,” he said quickly. “He did a fine job. I just meant Lefebvre was only here three years. I’d like to put up a few 90-win seasons in my tenure, keep this team in contention year in and year out …”

Two-hundred-thirty-four wins does not amount to managerial immortality, but the value of Piniella may not be so much in the winning as in the manner in which his teams win - and their 24th win of the year was as good an example as any.

“We lost Randy Johnson, we lost Chris Bosio, we got no-hit on this trip,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “That’s three pretty serious things, and we came back and won games we had to win. Playing hard every day isn’t that hard, but some teams don’t do it. We do, and it starts with Lou.”

Against Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, the Mariners went to a weapon early most teams haven’t seen from Seattle this season: speed. Griffey continued his torrid hitting - he has 14 hits in his last 28 at-bats - walked and, given the green light by Piniella, stole second base.

From there, he scored on an Edgar Martinez single, and before he took the mound, rookie Bob Wolcott had a 1-0 lead.

In Fenway Park, in a season of double-figure runs in nearly half the games played, one run didn’t look like much. Despite some control problems and five walks, Wolcott made that 1-0 lead hold up into the fifth inning.

Then Seattle rolled out more conventional weaponry.

Russ Davis led off the inning with his fourth home run. Three batters later, Darren Bragg hit a two-run shot, his fourth of the year, and before the inning was over Seattle was on top 6-0.

Sprinkled throughout the game were magnificent outfield catches by Bragg, Griffey and Jay Buhner and, once Wolcott ran out of steam - after 5-2/3 innings and 102 pitches - rock-solid relief work.

“On a trip through three very tough cities, we’re 4-3,” Piniella said, “and that’s having let a couple slip away in Baltimore. We’re basically playing well, we’re certainly hitting the ball well and playing great defense. Hopefully, this starts Wolcott on a little roll.”

Now 3-5, Wolcott chipped away at a bulky earned-run average, dropping it from 6.32 to 5.81 against Boston. Although he failed to go six innings - something no Mariners starter has done in the past 10 games - he pitched out of trouble often.

“You scramble out of a jam and you try to find the groove, the rhythm that will carry you through some easy innings,” Wolcott said, shaking his head. “There were no easy innings tonight. I made some good pitches when I had to, and I got a win. Whether it’s 2-1 or 13-12, the bottom line for pitchers is that win.”

Relievers Tim Davis, Mike Jackson and Norm Charlton shut out Boston the rest of the way, though Charlton benefited in the ninth from some rather foolish Red Sox baserunning.

Down by five runs with one out, Milt Cuyler lit out from first base on Troy O’Leary’s line drive toward the Green Monster in left field. Just in front of that wall, Bragg made the catch, then easily doubled Cuyler off first base to end the game.

In all, there were two Seattle homers and three Mariners stolen bases - two of them turned into runs. There were RBIs from Martinez, Buhner and Paul Sorrento. Then there was Piniella, whose 234th win in Seattle came in game No. 463.

Lefebvre won 233 games, but required 486 games.

“It’s nice,” Piniella said of the milestone, “but I’d like to get our rotation squared away, get Randy healthy and run off about 14 out of 17, something like that. The one thing these kids do is play hard for me, every day.”

Hot ticket

The tickets continue to sell at a record pace for the Mariners, though it isn’t starting pitching that has fans lining up.

When the Mariners open their homestand on Friday night against New York in the Kingdome, they’ll have pre-sold more than 120,000 tickets for the three-game series with the Yankees - even though the starting pitcher for two of those three games is undecided.

Seattle has sold more than 39,000 tickets for the game Friday, Saturday’s game is a sellout and approximately 32,000 tickets have been sold for the Sunday game.

Ex-Yankee Sterling Hitchcock will start for Seattle in the opener, and Chris Bosio was supposed to pitch on Sunday. He won’t.

“We need two starting pitchers this weekend and they’ll either come from our roster or from (Triple-A) Tacoma,” Piniella said.

M’s hot on TV

M’s telecasts on KIRO-TV are averaging a 13.0 rating and a 27.6 share through May 20 - 14 games.

According to the Sports Business Daily, the 13.0 rating ranks as the third-highest local TV rating in baseball, trailing only Cleveland (16.5) and Baltimore (14.8).

Seattle’s ratings are up 48 percent over last season’s 8.8 at this time.

Notes

Rich Amaral’s three-hit game Tuesday raised his batting average to .250, and he did it with a bat borrowed from teammate Doug Strange. “It’s a little lighter than mine, and I felt quicker,” Amaral said. The problem? Strange doesn’t have many of them, so until the team gets home Friday he’s given Amaral one bat. … Russ Davis doubled twice Tuesday and found himself not on the bench platooning, but back in the lineup Wednesday. Why? “He had some good at-bats and he’s hit knuckleballers well,” Piniella said. Davis will sit today and Strange will start at third base against Roger Clemens.

Mariners 6, Red Sox 1

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Bragg lf 3 1 1 2 2 0 .351 ARodrigz ss 5 0 1 0 0 2 .348 Griffey Jr cf 4 2 2 0 1 0 .285 EMartinz dh 3 1 1 1 0 1 .348 Buhner rf 4 0 1 1 0 2 .309 Sorrento 1b 4 0 1 1 0 1 .269 RDavis 3b 4 1 2 1 0 1 .252 DWilson c 4 0 0 0 0 1 .268 Cora 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .215 Totals 35 6 10 6 3 8 Boston AB R H BI BB SO Avg. O’Leary rf-lf 5 1 1 0 0 1 .283 JnValntin ss 3 0 1 0 1 0 .287 MVaughn 1b 3 0 2 1 1 0 .351 Canseco lf 1 0 0 0 1 0 .295 a-ACole ph-cf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .222 Jefferson dh 4 0 0 0 0 1 .385 Stanley c 3 0 0 0 1 1 .290 Naehring 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .341 Manto 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .250 Cuyler cf-rf 2 0 0 0 1 0 .167 b-Haslmn ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .327 Totals 32 1 6 1 5 5 Seattle 100 050 000 - 6 10 0 Boston 000 010 000 - 1 6 1 a-flied out for Canseco in the 5th. b-struck out, safe on wild pitch for Cuyler in the 9th.

E-Stanley (8). LOBSeattle 6, Boston 9. 2B-JnValentin (14), MVaughn (8), Naehring (2). 3B-Manto (1). HR-Bragg (4) off Wakefield; RDavis (4) off Wakefield. RBIsBragg 2 (7), EMartinez (37), Buhner (43), Sorrento (26), RDavis (15), MVaughn (48). SB-Bragg (4), Griffey Jr (5), Cora (4). GIDP ARodriguez, DWilson, ACole.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 3 (ARodriguez, Sorrento, RDavis); Boston 5 (O’Leary, Jefferson 3, Cuyler).

Runners moved up-MVaughn, ACole.

DP-Seattle 2 (Cora, ARodriguez and Sorrento), (Bragg, Cora and Sorrento); Boston 2 (JnValentin, Manto and MVaughn), (Wakefield, Manto and MVaughn).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wolctt W,3-5 5-2/3 5 1 1 5 4 102 5.81 TDavis 1-2/3 1 0 0 0 0 12 5.00 MJackson 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 4.87 Charlton 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 10 3.38 Boston IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wakefld L,2-5 6 9 6 6 3 4 107 5.53 Garces 2 0 0 0 0 4 32 2.84 Gunderson 1 1 0 0 0 0 14 2.25 Inherited runners-scored-TDavis 2-0.

HBPby Wakefield (EMartinez). WP-Charlton. Balk- Wakefield.

T-2:37. A-26,753 (33,871).