Bullpen woes haunting M’s

SEATTLE – A year ago, they were the pleasant young surprises of a Seattle Mariners bullpen that all but guaranteed victory if they had a lead through six innings.

This year, with 24-year-old right-handers Julio Mateo and Rafael Soriano stepping into more important roles, little has been certain about the relief pitching.

Mariners relievers have been involved in more than a third of the team’s decisions this season, including seven of the 19 losses, and opponents have whipped up on Soriano and Mateo.

Soriano went 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA last year, but he still hasn’t fully recovered from the month of spring training he missed because of a strained muscle in his side, and already is 0-3 with a 13.50 earned run average.

Mateo, 4-0 and 3.15 last year, has a 4.40 ERA. He served up Derek Jeter’s two-run homer Sunday that wiped out a two-run lead, and he has given up runs in two other games in which opponents came from behind to beat the Mariners.

Their jobs have changed from last year, when Mateo and Soriano would get the ball when the Mariners either were safely ahead or hopelessly behind.

“There’s a lot more responsibility on the shoulders of Mateo and Soriano this year,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “Sometimes it takes some getting used to when the expectation is elevated. I don’t think that they can’t handle that type of pressure, but they need to perform better.”

“But,” Price added, “we need better performances from basically everyone on our staff.”

Despite a stint in the minor leagues, Soriano has pitched without his greatest asset, the fastball that reached 97 mph last year, and he has struggled because of it.

Price said the M’s probably will pull Soriano temporarily from the late-inning setup role and give him more opportunities in long relief, hoping that helps re-establish his pitches and his confidence.

“Last year, he would face one to five hitters and he’d overmatch them,” Price said. “Now he’s got to pitch a little bit more with his slider and changeup because he doesn’t have his best fastball, and we’re asking him to do that in tight games. We may get him some more longer outings just so he isn’t thrown into the fire without his best pitch.”

While the Mariners’ sporadic offense has gotten much of the blame for the team’s 12-19 start, the bullpen hasn’t helped matters.

Besides the problems Mateo and Soriano have suffered:

•The Mariners put struggling right-hander Kevin Jarvis on their opening-day roster and paid in more ways than his $4.25 million salary. The M’s used him eight times in long relief but his 8.31 ERA, and a horrible outing when he allowed five runs to the Rangers in three innings April 25, forced the team to finally release him.

•Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who allowed just four earned runs in the first three months last year, already has surrendered eight, along with three losses. His 4.70 ERA is more than double what he finished with last year.

•Left-hander Ron Villone is 3-0 in long relief, more from being the right guy in the right place at the right time. Opponents have tagged him with 18 hits, 11 earned runs and 10 walks _ plus three hit batters _ in 21 innings, and his ERA stands at 4.71.

•Mike Myers has pitched well, but not spectacularly, in the left-handed specialist role. He’s 1-1, 4.32 and has held lefties to a .217 average (5-for-23) with one walk and three strikeouts.

•Right-hander J.J. Putz, called up twice this season, has performed spectacularly _ like Mateo and Soriano did last year _ in non-pressure situations, allowing just one hit in 6 1/3 innings.

•Closer Eddie Guardado had knee problems in spring training and a shoulder ailment early in the season, but has recorded five saves in seven chances with a 1.29 ERA.

All together, the relievers own 12 of the team’s 31 decisions with a 5-7 record and a 4.03 ERA, and they’re one of the reasons the Mariners are last in the American League West, 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Angels.

“We’re certainly better than we’ve pitched to this point,” Price said. “We need to rely on quality pitching if we’re going to get back in the hunt.”

It would help if the Mariners could establish an order to their bullpen roles that Hasegawa, Arthur Rhodes, Jeff Nelson and Kazuhiro Sasaki provided when those four were healthy and pitching well the last few seasons. For a variety of reasons, they haven’t found the rhythm of past pens.

“There’s new guys in the pen and young guys going into new roles,” Price said. “It’s Soriano being hurt. It’s two new left-handers. It’s a new closer.

“It’s been a different mix.”

The results have been mixed as well.