M’S Gain Salvation In Boston Tinsley, Charlton Find Redemption Backing Johnson’s Excellent Start
The postgame Seattle clubhouse had the feel of a traveling revival Friday, with men talking passionately of redemption, rejuvenation and occasionally baseball.
Lee Tinsley spoke in hushed tones about finding his swing and the joy another two-hit game produced as he tries to become a force in a Mariners lineup he feared he’d played himself out of in a 0-for-16 start.
For Norm Charlton - who majored in political science, physical education and religion - the converting he wanted to talk about was in the ‘save’ department. Erratic in his first three appearances of the young year, Charlton struck out three Boston hitters in the ninth inning this time to preserve Seattle’s 5-3 victory.
And then there was the biggest story of the day, the starting and winning pitcher, Randy Johnson.
Six days after throwing 91 pitches in a six-inning start against the Red Sox in Seattle, the ‘Big Unit’ faced the same team in hitter-friendly Fenway Park. He wanted to win. He wanted to throw a few more pitches than his last time out. He wanted to prove himself healthy again.
Call it a 3-for-3 day - and call the Red Sox impressed again.
“The only difference I see is that he went six innings, not nine,” Red Sox catcher Bill Haselman said.
Even that was by design.
As the Mariners wobbled a little opening their season, role players like Tinsley and key players like Charlton took their lumps, but kept pushing. Tenacity is one of the elements that has kept both in the major leagues.
But if there is one man the Mariners need this year - and didn’t have last year, when they finished 4-1/2 games behind the Texas Rangers - it is Johnson. And if re-tooling Tinsley’s swing or figuring a way to disguise Charlton’s pitches is important, rebuilding Johnson into the beast who won the Cy Young Award in 1995 is the project on which Seattle’s postseason ambitions hang.
“We’re going slow and steady with Randy,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We had him on a pitch count. He was going to throw 100-105 pitches, but after the sixth inning he’d thrown 98. That was enough. You don’t push it for another six, seven pitches.”
A man who has argued to stay in most of his 224 big league starts, Johnson went along happily this time.
“Today, Lou said I was done. In the past, I probably would have gone, ‘One more inning, give me one more inning,”’ Johnson admitted. “In my situation, that’s not a good thing to do.”
Johnson’s steady comeback from back surgery last year rolled through the Boston lineup again Friday, when he used those 98 pitches in a three-walk, seven-strikeout effort that was marred by one man - John Valentin - who hit a pair of solo home runs.
Coming in the fourth and sixth innings, those homers pulled the Red Sox close, but never evened the game.
The Mariners beat Steve Avery by pecking away.
Rich Amaral lined a two-run, two-out, second-inning double that gave Johnson a 2-0 lead, and Alex Rodriguez hit his second home run of the season in the third to make it 3-0.
“With Randy pitching, it always feels good to get him a lead,” Amaral said. “Randy has a couple of gears out there, and not many guys do. He shifts into high with a lead.”
After Boston inched close at 3-2 behind Valentin, Jay Buhner singled with two outs to add a run in the seventh for Seattle, and Tinsley’s second hit - a line double off the famed Green Monster in left field - put Seattle ahead 5-2.
Bobby Ayala worked two innings in relief of Johnson, giving up one run, and then Charlton came in, trying to improve on a start in which he had saved one game and blown two, winning one of those when Seattle rallied.
“No matter how long you play this game, confidence is a day-to-day thing at times,” Charlton said. “Ask any hitter, any pitcher, it’s the same. Sometimes you feel you’ll never get another out or another hit. Sometimes you don’t think you can give one up.”
Charlton walked one man in the ninth, but struck out the other three he faced.
“When you consider my outs were hard last week, this was a hell of a lot better,” he said. “To me, it just reinforced what we thought last week - guys knew what was coming before I threw it.”
So Charlton’s second save preserved Johnson’s first victory. Which the “Big Unit” thought of as proper retribution.
“I bought him dinner last night,” Johnson said. “Norm owed me one.”
xxxx Mariners 5, Red Sox 3 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Amaral lf 5 1 2 2 0 3 .417 Espinoza 2b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .333 d-Gates ph-2b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .231 ARodriguez ss 4 1 1 1 1 1 .325 EMartinez dh 4 0 2 0 1 0 .371 Buhner rf 4 0 2 1 1 1 .281 Blowers 1b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .111 a-Sorrento ph-1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .250 DaWilson c 2 2 1 0 2 0 .259 RDavis 3b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .296 Tinsley cf 4 0 2 1 0 0 .258 Totals 36 5 12 5 5 7 Boston AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Garciaparra ss 4 1 0 0 1 3 .295 JhValentin 2b 4 2 2 2 0 0 .250 MVaughn 1b 3 0 2 0 0 1 .250 Stanley dh 4 0 1 1 0 2 .200 1-Frye pr-dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 Naehring 3b 2 0 0 0 2 0 .306 Cordero lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .286 Pemberton rf 1 0 0 0 1 0 .100 b-O’Leary ph-rf 1 0 0 0 1 1 .250 Haselman c 4 0 0 0 0 3 .370 Mack cf 2 0 1 0 0 1 .375 c-Jefferson ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .368 Bragg cf 0 0 0 0 1 0 .261 Totals 30 3 6 3 6 12 Seattle 021 000 110 - 5 Boston 000 101 010 - 3 a-struck out for Blowers in the 7th. b-walked for Pemberton in the 7th. c-grounded out for Mack in the 7th. d-grounded out for Espinoza in the 8th. 1-ran for Stanley in the 8th. E-Naehring (2). LOBSeattle 10, Boston 7. 2B-Amaral (1), EMartinez (4), DaWilson (3), Tinsley (2). HR-JhValentin 2 (2) off RaJohnson 2; ARodriguez (2) off Avery. RBIsAmaral 2 (2), ARodriguez (4), Buhner (9), Tinsley (3), JhValentin 2 (4), Stanley (3). CS-Mack (1). S-Espinoza. GIDPBuhner, Stanley, Haselman. Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 6 (Espinoza 2, Gates, ARodriguez 2, Sorrento); Boston 2 (Garciaparra, Cordero). DP-Seattle 2 (Espinoza, ARodriguez and Blowers), (ARodriguez, Espinoza and Blowers); Boston 2 (Avery, JhValentin and MVaughn), (JhValentin). Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA RaJohnson W,1-0 6 4 2 2 3 7 97 3.00 Ayala 2 2 1 1 2 2 40 6.75 Charlton S,2 1 0 0 0 1 3 21 10.80 Boston IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Avery L,0-1 6 8 3 3 2 4 102 3.27 Corsi 2/3 2 1 1 1 0 15 13.50 BHenry 2/3 1 1 0 1 1 18 2.25 Mahomes 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 9 8.10 Slocumb 1 1 0 0 1 1 16 2.45 BHenry pitched to 3 batters in the 8th. Inherited runners-scored-BHenry 2-0, Mahomes 1-0. IBBoff Corsi (EMartinez) 1. HBPby RaJohnson (MVaughn). WP-Charlton, Mahomes. T-3:03. A-34,210 (33,925).