Fast Break

Baseball

M’s skipper, reliever suspended

Mariners reliever Jorge Campillo was suspended for four games by Major League Baseball on Friday, a day after he threw at Vladimir Guerrero and was ejected.

Seattle manager John McLaren was also ejected and received a one-game suspension because both benches had previously been warned. He sat out Friday night’s game against Los Angeles.

In the sixth inning of the Angels’ 9-5 win Thursday night over the Mariners, Campillo whizzed a fastball past Guerrero’s head, causing a scrum near the mound. No punches were thrown.

Guerrero, who had hit a two-run homer off Campillo in the fourth after ducking a fastball over his head, got up off the deck in the sixth, pointed at the right-hander and began walking to the mound. Seattle first baseman Ben Broussard quickly stepped in front of Guerrero and Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia also latched onto the star, who never got close to the mound.

Angels starter Jered Weaver had hit M’s catcher Kenji Johjima with a pitch in the fourth inning.

NBA

Sonics owner looks for way out of lease

The Seattle SuperSonics have asked for an arbitration panel to rule they do not have to play the final three years of their lease at KeyArena so the team can relocate after this coming season, in the likely event it does not secure a new arena in the Seattle area by next month.

“As we approach the Oct. 31 deadline, we’ve seen nothing tangible,” Sonics chairman Clay Bennett said, referring to movement toward a new, $500 million building and the deadline he created after the team filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association this week.

“It’s not working at all today here,” said Bennett, who has estimated his Oklahoma City-based ownership group lost $20 million running the team for the first time last season. “We have significant cash loss. Our sales are way off … just compared to what is happening with the Mariners and the Seahawks.

“The business model today, where we are, cannot continue.”

Bennett, whose group bought the Sonics and WNBA’s Storm for $350 million in 2006, said he hopes to have a decision from a three-member arbitration panel by January. That would then give Seattle’s NBA team since 1967 time to file for relocation with the NBA for the 2008-09 season. Teams must file for relocation by March 1.