A Doff Of The Cap To Tribe’s Nagy

Give them another at-bat, another inning - another week - and the Seattle Mariners are going to pummel Charles Nagy.

They came close Monday. Almost got him. Nearly broke through.

If he felt the pressure of pitching all night with Mariners in scoring position, the Cleveland right-hander didn’t show it, and though Nagy seemed to be in the cross-hairs all night, it was the Indians who kept scoring in what became an 8-3 Seattle loss.

Not only did a Kingdome crowd of 22,012 come to see what the Mariners would do against a man with a 10.13 earned-run average, they came with high expectations for Scott Sanders, the right-hander who’d had a rough first start of his own against the New York Yankees.

Sanders retired the first five Indians, then gave up four lightning-strike runs, three coming on Sandy Alomar’s fourth home run.

And Nagy? A man with a 1-5 record and a 6.05 career ERA in the Kingdome, he was in trouble virtually all night as Seattle threw threat after threat at him. What he threw back whenever the M’s put men in scoring position was an assortment of pitches that left hitters flailing and baserunners standing.

“The difference tonight was that Nagy made the pitches when he had to and I didn’t,” Sanders said. “We got men on base, he got tougher.”

Seattle put a man on third base in the second, third and fourth innings. Nagy left him there each time. The Mariners got men to second base in the fifth and sixth innings. Nagy bore down and stranded those runners, too.

After six innings, the Mariners had come to the plate 11 times with men in scoring position - and Nagy had retired all 11 hitters who could have closed the gap.

By the time Seattle scored, it was Nagy who pushed the run home with a bases-loaded walk. And when Russ Davis trotted across the plate, he cut the score to 5-1 and brought Ken Griffey up as the potential tying run.

The Indians went to lefty Paul Assenmacher and Griffey flied out.

Indians 8, Mariners 3

Cleveland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Grissom cf 5 0 0 0 0 0 .107 Vizquel ss 4 0 1 0 1 1 .304 Thome 1b 5 0 0 0 0 1 .316 MaWllms 3b 3 2 1 0 1 1 .240 Justice lf 3 1 0 0 1 2 .316 Ramirez rf 4 1 2 3 0 0 .200 1-Giles pr-rf 0 1 0 0 0 0 .500 JuFranco 2b 4 1 3 1 0 1 .333 TFrnandz 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .444 Mitchell dh 3 1 0 0 1 1 .217 SAlomar c 4 1 2 3 0 0 .476 Totals 35 8 9 7 4 7 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 5 0 2 1 0 0 .188 ARodrigz ss 4 0 0 1 1 2 .321 Griffey Jr cf 4 0 2 0 0 1 .455 EMartinz dh 4 1 2 1 0 0 .304 Buhner rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .105 Sorrento 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .235 DaWilson c 4 0 0 0 0 3 .286 Marzano c 0 0 0 0 0 0 —- RDavis 3b 4 1 3 0 0 1 .263 Tinsley lf 4 1 2 0 0 1 .111 Totals 37 3 11 3 1 11

Cleveland 040 001 030 - 8

Seattle 000 000 111 - 3

1-ran for Ramirez in the 8th.

E-ARodriguez (2). LOBCleveland 4, Seattle 8. 2B-MaWilliams (3), Ramirez (1), SAlomar (3), Griffey Jr (2), RDavis (1). 3B-Tinsley (1). HR-EMartinez (2) off Plunk; SAlomar (4) off SSanders; Ramirez (1) off SSanders. RBIsRamirez 3 (5), JuFranco (2), SAlomar 3 (9), Cora (1), ARodriguez (2), EMartinez (6). SB- MaWilliams (1), JuFranco (1), Griffey Jr (1). GIDP Vizquel, Mitchell, ARodriguez.

Runners left in scoring position-Cleveland 1 (Thome); Seattle 7 (Cora, ARodriguez, Griffey Jr 2, Buhner, Sorrento, DaWilson).

Runners moved up-Cora, Buhner 2, Sorrento, Tinsley.

DP-Cleveland 1 (Vizquel, TFernandez and Thome); Seattle 2 (ARodriguez, Cora and Sorrento), (Sorrento, ARodriguez and Torres).

Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Nagy W, 1-0 6 8 1 1 1 8 114 5.25 Asnmcr 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 Plunk 2 3 2 2 0 3 28 7.71 Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA SSndrs L, 0-2 6 5 5 5 3 7 115 9.00 Torres 3 4 3 3 1 0 34 27.00 Inherited runners-scored-Assenmacher 3-0.

WP-SSanders.

T-2:58. A-22,12 (58,879).