Mariners Show They’re Merciful, If Nothing Else

FYI, the magic number is 122.

That’s the number of days until the trading deadline.

In the desperate hours before that urgent midnight, Lou Piniella will once again prod Woody Woodward to the telephone. The call will be placed and the Seattle Mariners will offer up a fine young prospect in search of yet another pitcher who can give a beaten opponent a proper burial. Of course, this time Seattle’s trading partner will have to take the merchandise on spec - the M’s having already traded away all their prospects.

“You guys are merciless,” Piniella complained Tuesday night.

Yeah, well, we can always borrow some mercy from the Mariners bullpen. That’s been Mercy Central, at least since the O.J. jury was dismissed.

On their way to winning their 1998 baseball opener in predictably gleeful fashion, the Mariners instead lost it even more predictably: on a bases-loaded walk - four straight balls - after a blowing a six-run lead.

Ah, but lest you blame only the usual suspects, we should point out that the winning run in Cleveland’s 10-9 victory at the Kingdome was charged to the new man, left-hander Tony Fossas.

Just so he’d feel like one of the gang.

“I walk the only guy I face and get the loss in a game when the team scores nine runs,” Fossas lamented. “That’s as ugly as it can be.”

Mariners fans, you’d better hold him to that.

For if he’s right - if this is indeed the acme of ugly - then the M’s may as well start getting fitted for World Series rings, no?

Any conclusions drawn from the first of 162 games are generally held to be specious, and rightfully so.

“It’s hard to summarize a season,” shortstop Alex Rodriguez said, “in nine innings.”

So we won’t. Instead, we’ll draw our conclusions using this as the latest of 163 games going back to last April - 167, if you throw in the playoffs.

If you extrapolate from that data, you’ll probably see the M’s win 90 games again and the bullpen blow a slew of others, including the ones that really count.

And don’t let the just-one-game denials fool you. This one counted. Certainly it did to the regular-season record crowd of 57,822.

“It was a like a playoff game out there,” said Rodriguez, who blamed being “too juiced up” for his 0-for-5 evening. “You had a huge crowd and you’re playing a championship club. It was like there was something on the line.”

There was. A chance to exorcise an old ghost, if only just for one night.

Instead, the Mariners unleashed their mighty thunder. Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner and Russ Davis all went deep off Cleveland starter Charles Nagy, who moved into the early lead in home runs allowed - though it should be noted that Scott Sanders has yet to pitch.

That staked Randy Johnson to a 9-3 lead - “something you usually lick your chops for,” he said. Instead, the Indians began licking theirs, cutting the gap in half the very next inning.

“I need to go out and shut the door,” Johnson said, “and I didn’t do my job.

“My pitches were catching too much of the plate and it was evident by giving up a lot of those hits. I didn’t throw in enough and get them off the plate. They seemed to be too comfortable up there.”

And the comfort level only rose when Piniella had to call on his bullpen.

The Calamity Cabal.

Before the M’s could get out of the eighth inning, Bobby Ayala, Fossas and Mike Timlin had allowed five walks, a triple, a double and four runs.

“I’m not going to even speak about the bullpen issue,” sniffed Timlin. “We’ve got confidence. We know what we can do.”

And what, too often, they can’t.

If you’re a charitable fan, you allow that Manny Ramirez’s game-tying double would have been a double play instead had it been hit even a foot to the right.

Uh-huh. And the rest of those pitches would have been strikes, if they hadn’t been balls.

“Everyone wants to criticize the bullpen,” said Rodriguez, “but you’ve got to give credit to (the Indians). They swing the bats well.” And know when not to.

If the bullpen’s latest failure is not bleak enough, try viewing it against the sunny horizon of Cleveland’s relievers - Paul Shuey, Jose Mesa, Paul Assenmacher and Mike Jackson - retiring 13 straight batters, the M’s bats spent after hitting all those bombs.

“Yeah,” grumped Piniella, “but nine runs is nine runs. You’ve got nine runs and a big lead, you should win.”

Yet in virtually the next breath, the Mariners manager rose to his beleaguered bullpen’s defense. “Give these guys a chance,” he said. “They’re going to pitch well. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.”

Probably. When they become former Mariners.

In any case, there will be other nights to celebrate - maybe 90 of them again - and to draw the conclusions Piniella and the fellas prefer. At least, most of the fellas.

“It is 162 games,” Fossas said. “But the one that counted was the one today.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review