Olerud’s a big hit in return

SEATTLE – John Olerud had spent half the season trying to find a hole to hit the ball through, and ultimately it cost him his job with the Seattle Mariners.

Saturday, in his first game in Seattle as a New York Yankee, Olerud’s well-placed grounder in the eighth inning split the Mariners’ defense, driving home two runs to break a tie score and give the Yankees a 6-4 victory.

The hit continued a turnaround for Olerud that began the moment he changed uniforms. He’d batted just .245 with 31 RBIs in 78 games before the Mariners released him July 27; he’s hitting .333 with 11 RBIs in the nine games since he joined the Yankees on Aug. 3.

Go figure? Olerud can’t.

“I really don’t know why,” said Olerud, a Seattle native who got a long standing ovation from the crowd before his first at-bat. “I’ve been trying to get things turned around, trying to hit the ball better. I’m going up there trying to hit the ball hard and I’ve just been finding some holes lately.”

He plugged one perfectly through the right side of the Mariners’ infield in the eighth inning Saturday, breaking a 4-4 tie in yet another late-inning misstep by the M’s bullpen.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa took over for starter Jamie Moyer to begin the eighth and promptly hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch, then served up a double to Bernie Williams.

With runners on first and third, nobody out and the left-handed side of the Yankees’ lineup due up, M’s manager Bob Melvin brought in lefty George Sherrill.

He got Hideki Matsui on a grounder for the first out, then intentionally walked switch-hitting Ruben Sierra to load the bases and set up a double-play possibility with Olerud coming to the plate.

Sherrill threw a slider he thought couldn’t hurt him – down and in – and Olerud dropped the bat on it.

“Nine times out of 10 it’s going to be an out,” Sherrill said. “It’s just unfortunate that was the one time. It was a decent pitch. It did catch the plate but it was down at the knees, if not lower.”

Olerud “hooked it,” Melvin said, into the only vacant spot on the right side of the Mariners’ infield. The ball bounced between first baseman Bucky Jacobsen and second baseman Bret Boone, scored Sheffield and Williams, and drew a mixed response from the crowd that was as pro-Olerud as it was pro-Mariners.

Before Olerud saw his first pitch in the second inning, the fans stood and cheered him loudly. Mariners catcher Dan Wilson made sure it was a long ovation when he walked to the mound and talked with Moyer, leaving Olerud standing alone at the plate.

“It seemed like it was an awfully long time I was standing out there,” he said. “It was very nice to get the ovation.”

Hasegawa took the loss and is 4-5 with a 5.98 ERA, the Mariners fell 30 games below .500 (43-73) and Moyer pitched a 10th straight game without winning.

Moyer, still 6-8, last won June 18 at Pittsburgh, and it appeared he might finally end the streak Saturday.

The Yankees nailed him for a 2-0 lead on back-to-back homers by Sheffield and Williams in the first inning, but the Mariners came back and took the lead against Yankees starter Esteban Loaiza. They scored once in the third inning on Edgar Martinez’s RBI single and three times in the fifth on Jose Lopez’s first career home run and sacrifice flies by Bret Boone and Raul Ibanez.

Moyer led 4-3 with one out in the seventh, before Enrique Wilson and John Flaherty hit consecutive doubles that tied the score.

Pineiro done for year?

Mariners manager Bob Melvin, fully realizing Joel Pineiro’s longterm value to the team, said there’s a good chance the right-hander won’t pitch again this season.

Pineiro, on the disabled list since July 27 because of a strained elbow, said last week he’s eager to begin throwing again so he can pitch before the end of the season. Not so fast, Melvin says.

“He is just too valuable to this organization to risk being injured again,” Melvin said. “I know he wants he pitch a couple of times before the season ends, but in my mind, there is no reason to rush him out there.”

Pineiro, provided he’s healthy, could be the opening-day starter next season.

Back on base

Ichiro Suzuki’s single in the fifth inning Saturday was his first in two games and continued an impressive streak. Ichiro has gone hitless in back-to-back games just twice this season, and hasn’t done it since April 28-29.