Latest win gives M’s some hope

PITTSBURGH – For the second time in a week, the Seattle Mariners laid claim to a three-game winning streak and introduced a new factor to the clubhouse – hope.

“You hesitate to say anything, because we dug such a deep hole,” third baseman Scott Spiezio said. “But as a team, we’re playing better. A lot of guys are putting together good days.”

Spiezio laughed. “Not me, but a lot of guys.”

Humor and hope stood side by side in the Mariners clubhouse after their 5-1 victory Saturday over the Pittsburgh Pirates – and Seattle players made sure to keep the two together.

No one was carried too far on the swell of possibilities, but with Joel Pineiro winning his second consecutive dominant start and shortstop Rich Aurilia picking up a three-RBI night for the first time this season, smiles abounded.

“Who knows?” Spiezio deadpanned. “We might even win four in a row this time.”

No, the Mariners are not about to call the month of June – when they’re 10-7 – their turnaround from two months of bad baseball. But baby steps count, and when they awaken this morning, the Mariners at 28-38 will be just 10 games out of first place in the American League West.

They were 13 1/2 out two weeks ago.

Most encouraging for Seattle is the way they’ve won nine of their past 13 games – with simple, fundamentally sound baseball.

“Joel was pitching a great game and didn’t have a big lead, and I got two runs home with two outs in the sixth inning,” Aurilia said. “As we were taking the field, Spiezio said, ‘Thanks for picking me up.’ “

Aurilia’s response?

“I told him,” Aurilia said, ” ‘It was about time.’ “

Spiezio laughed at the telling.

“Yeah, that’s what he said. And I told him maybe some day it would be my time,” he said.

In a ballpark known for early-evening shadows, no one did much hitting early on – and Seattle didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning. Rookie left-hander Sean Burnett put down the first 12 Mariners he faced.

Pineiro wasn’t quite perfect early, but he was close.

“The last three games – since the start against Roger Clemens – I’ve tried to take the same aggressiveness with me to the mound,” Pineiro said. “I’m not trying to strike guys out, I’m trying to get them out. I had a good sinker tonight, so it was like, ‘Here, hit this pitch.’ “

That approach took Pineiro into the eighth inning with a shutout.

Burnett didn’t last that long, and can probably be considered lucky to have gotten out of the sixth inning without a major injury.

Randy Winn opened that inning with a single, and one out later Ichiro Suzuki ripped a line drive off Burnett’s left arm – a shot so wicked that after catching the pitcher flush, the ball continued into center field.

The result: a contusion to the left biceps. Burnett’s night was over.

When Pittsburgh went to its bullpen, the Mariners doubled their lead, using Aurilia’s two-out, two-run double to pull ahead 4-0 in the sixth.

In the ninth inning, coming off the bench, Edgar Martinez delivered an RBI double in the pinch – the 507th double of his career, which slid him past Babe Ruth.

“Any time you hear your name and that name, it’s special,” Martinez said.

“I’ve never been a good pinch hitter.”

What happened Saturday?

“I found a hole,” he said.

Not exactly – Martinez found the right-center field wall, and banged his double off of it.

Pittsburgh’s offense came from former Gonzaga outfielder Jason Bay. Bay, who hit two home runs against Seattle on Friday, hit another off Pineiro in the eighth inning.

He has six homers this season – three in seven at-bats against Seattle.

Pineiro finished the inning and now has something he hasn’t had all season – a winning streak.

“That’s two in a row,” said Pineiro, whose record is 3-8. “Do I wish I’d pitched like this the first couple months? Yeah, but that’s the past. I can’t change that.

“What I can do is try to run this streak out longer, pitch this way and help the team get its own streak going.”

The timing of Seattle’s surge toward respectability – .500, anyone? – includes a schedule against less-than-formidable teams. But the Mariners proved in April and May they could lose to anyone.

So taking three from Montreal, one from Milwaukee, and two more from Pittsburgh may not inspire a rampage to the turnstiles at Safeco Field, but it has put a little salve on the Mariners’ wounds.

“Good teams get hits with runners in scoring position and a couple outs,” Aurilia said. “We haven’t been doing that until lately, but we’re doing it now.”

“No one has given up, and if we were 30 games out, we wouldn’t give up,” Spiezio said. “If we play like this, we have a chance. We have to peck away, play good baseball – and we’re trying to do that.”