Mariners Run Away From Cleveland Marzano’s Early Battle Helps M’S Get Rout Rolling

Games swing on the smallest moments, and in lopsided affairs those moments can be forgotten in the flurry of offense and good pitching.

The Seattle Mariners pounded the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday, closing out an eight-game stand in the Kingdome with an 11-1 victory - and the man who put the rout into motion was the only one in the starting lineup to go without a base hit.

Reserve catcher John Marzano doesn’t count on many plate appearances during a season playing behind All-Star Dan Wilson, but the one he got in the first inning became a portrait in tenacity, a little two-man duel that won’t show up in the box score.

The high-profile at-bats belonged to Jay Buhner, to Paul Sorrento, to Russ Davis - Mariners who used home runs to pad a first-inning lead and make starter Bob Wolcott’s evening that much easier.

Ken Griffey Jr. extended his hitting streak to eight games, scored a couple of runs, and before the Indians could put an end to it the Seattle offense had piled up another 13 hits, allowing the Mariners to skip town a .500 team (4-4).

“We needed this one,” manager Lou Piniella said. “Now we get a day off and we’ve got Randy Johnson, Jeff Fassero and Scott Sanders ready for three games in Boston. This gets us to Boston on a bit of a roll.”

And the at-bat that helped make that possible belonged to Marzano, the ninth man to bat in the Seattle first inning.

On rookie Bartolo Colon’s 15th pitch to Marzano - his 61st pitch of the first inning - he issued a walk, forcing home the fourth Mariners run of the rally. Hargrove yanked him, and Joey Cora greeted reliever Steve Kline with a two-run single on the first pitch he saw.

For all that offense, Wolcott shut down the Indians in a turnaround performance that saved his sanity and perhaps his job. Last week in his first start, Wolcott was pounded by Boston and gone after three innings, hit so hard that his earned-run average beginning the day Wednesday was 21.00.

By the time he left after 6-2/3 innings against Cleveland, that ERA was 6.52.

Piniella said, “Bob gave us as good a game as you could ask for. What was the difference between this one and the last one? He got people out this time.”

Manzanillo injures testicle

Mariners reliever Josias Manzanillo may lose his right testicle after being hit by a line drive in the groin off the bat of Cleveland’s Manny Ramirez.

He was not wearing a protective cup in Tuesday night’s 14-8 victory.

When Manzanillo, 29, a native of the Dominican Republic, showed up in the Kingdome on Wednesday, both his testicles were swollen and he had trouble walking.