Oliveras Leaves Much To Be Desired Battered Around Again In 9-2 Loss At Kansas City, Mariners Pitcher Hasn’t Lived Up To Expectations

The name Omar Olivares never passed Lou Piniella’s lips in a short-but-to-the-point post-game analysis Monday, though there was little doubt who he was talking about.

“If I were a starting pitcher for two months with a team in first place and I had one win, I’d have to take a close damn look at myself,” Piniella said.

Checking the roster, the lone suspect would appear to be Olivares, the right-hander whose ninth start with Seattle on Monday was much like the two that preceded it - ugly.

Olivares gave up seven runs in 2-2/3 innings, done in by the long ball again as a Kansas City team in a major slump jumped him early and pulled away for a 9-2 victory.

“They brought me over here to pitch like I did in Detroit,” Olivares said afterward, “and it hasn’t happened. The last three games I sucked. Tonight, I sucked. I give up eight home runs all year, then eight home runs in the last three starts? It’s frustrating.”

For a team trying to put away the American League West and formulate a postseason rotation, the decline of Olivares - 6-10 overall, 1-4 with the Mariners - has been a bitter disappointment.

“Seven runs in three innings?” Piniella said angrily. “We’re out of the game before it even starts.”

Then Piniella stormed into the shower.

The Royals had just been pummelled by Oakland during the weekend, and manager Tony Muser was so infuriated with his team that he called a mandatory 3 p.m. workout Monday and had his team working on spring training drills for more than an hour.

“We’ve been embarrassing ourselves in pubic,” Muser said. “We might as well work on it in private.”

Once the game started, Olivares was given a 1-0 first-inning lead that lasted until he’d faced four batters, at which point Chili Davis hit a three-run home run, and the Mariners were never closer than two runs back.

Adding to the frustration of defeat was a frightening moment in the sixth inning, when Davis swung and missed a Bob Wells fastball and lost his bat - which sailed into the Seattle dugout and clubbed Edgar Martinez on the back of the head.

“I saw it leave his hands and then I lost it in the lights,” Martinez said. “Everyone was running and there was nowhere for me to go.”

Martinez ducked, and took the meat end of the bat square on the back of his head, opening a bloody gash that needed five stitches to close. How badly was he hurt?

He didn’t leave the game.

“He’s OK, but I told him the blow to the head affected his thinking,” Piniella said. “He tried to bunt in his last at-bat. It must have been the blow to the head that made him do that.”

“Chili came over to see if I was OK,” Martinez said. “That was nice.”

While the Royals used three home runs early to put this one out of reach, the Mariners never really had a rally all night. Muser had promised before the game that Ken Griffey Jr. was not going to be allowed to hurt him, and Kansas City negated the “Junior Factor” by walking him once and hitting him with a pitch in another at-bat.

Griffey went 1 for 2 in the two at-bats K.C. pitched to him, singling in the third, popping out in the eighth.

The win went to Jim Pittsley, a right-hander just back from a long stint in Class AAA Omaha, who began the game with 3-7 record and a 5.97 ERA. In the first, he walked two Mariners and was in trouble.

By the time he took the mound in the second inning, Pittsley was ahead, 3-1. Before he pitched in the fourth inning, he was up, 7-1. And Olivares was gone.

“I have no excuses. I’m giving up way too many long balls,” Olivares said. “It’s not that I’m falling behind hitters, I’m ahead of them; I challenge them, they hit my pitches. I want to help this team and I haven’t.”

Like most struggling players, Olivares’ bad performances also are a reflection of some bad luck - nothing goes well when a man goes bad. In the first inning, with one out and a man on first, Jay Bell slapped a ground ball back up the middle.

Olivares got a glove on it, but it trickled behind him for a hit.

“If he catches the ball, it’s a double play and we’re out of the inning ahead, 1-0,” pitching coach Nardi Contreras said. “And if he misses the ball completely, Joey Cora fields it for a double play and we’re out of the inning. Right now, that’s how it’s going for Omar.”

Royals 9, Mariners 2

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 3 1 0 0 1 0 .301 ARodriguez ss 4 0 1 0 0 1 .300 Griffey Jr cf 2 1 1 0 1 0 .307 EMartinez dh 4 0 2 1 0 0 .331 Buhner rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .243 Sorrento 1b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .278 DaWilson c 4 0 1 0 0 0 .269 Gates 3b 3 0 0 0 1 0 .238 Ducey lf 2 0 0 0 0 1 .291 a-Amaral ph-lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .282 Totals 31 2 6 1 3 5 Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Offerman 2b 4 0 1 0 1 1 .304 Damon cf 5 2 4 0 0 1 .284 JBell 3b 5 3 3 0 0 0 .294 CDavis dh 3 2 1 3 2 1 .297 JKing 1b 5 1 1 3 0 0 .232 RDMyers lf 4 1 2 3 1 1 .268 Dye rf 5 0 2 0 0 0 .231 Macfarlane c 4 0 1 0 0 0 .226 FMartinez ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 .154 Totals 39 9 15 9 4 4 Seattle 100 001 000 - 2 Kansas City 304 000 02x - 9 a-flied out for Ducey in the 7th.

LOB-Seattle 6, Kansas City 10. 2B-JBell (26), Dye (14), Macfarlane (12). HR-RDMyers (1) off Olivares; JKing (22) off Olivares; CDavis (29) off Olivares. RBIs-EMartinez (100), CDavis 3 (86), JKing 3 (89), RDMyers 3 (6). GIDP- EMartinez, Buhner.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 3 (Cora, Buhner 2); Kansas City 6 (CDavis 3, Dye, Macfarlane, FMarintez).

Runners moved up-EMartinez.

DP-Kansas City 2 (JBell, Offerman and JKing), (JBell, Offerman and JKing).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Olivares L,6-10 2-2/3 7 7 7 1 1 58 5.11 BWells 2-1/3 2 0 0 0 1 50 5.78 Spoljaric 1-2/3 3 0 0 2 1 40 3.48 Charlton 1-1/3 3 2 2 1 1 26 7.36 Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Pittsley W,4-7 5 3 1 1 3 3 77 5.74 Haney 3 3 1 1 0 1 38 4.84 JMontgomery 1 0 0 0 0 1 8 3.86 Inherited runners-scored-BWells 1-0, Charlton 2-0.

IBB-off Olivares (CDavis) 1. HBP-by Haney (Griffey Jr). WP-Charlton, Pittsley.

T-2:41. A-14,278 (40,625).