Big inning condemns M's

Big inning condemns M's

Pineiro gives up eight in fourth and Seattle can't make another comeback

By Kirby Arnold

Everett Herald

SEATTLE - Amid a sudden knack to hit, run, score and keep games interesting from start to finish, one aspect of the Seattle Mariners slipped into to old form Tuesday.

Joel Pineiro had one bad inning.

That was a problem early this season before Pineiro pulled himself together. In the last six weeks, he has been the Mariners' most consistent starting pitcher with a 4-3 record and a 3.10 earned run average.

Tuesday, with no feel for anything but the rosin bag, the wheels fell back off in a brief but brutal free-fall that cost the Mariners a 9-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Safeco Field.

The Red Sox scored eight runs off Pineiro in the fourth inning, including home runs on back-to-back pitches to David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, and held on as the Mariners tried to pulled off a second straight comeback.

The Mariners out-hit the Red Sox 18-10, set a franchise high with six stolen bases in a nine-inning game - four by Ichiro Suzuki - and turned a seven-run deficit into a battle to the finish. It wasn't over until Red Sox closer Keith Foulke struck out Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez and Bucky Jacobsen with two runners on base in the ninth.

"I was the only negative thing for us today," Pineiro said. "We had a bunch of hits, we scored some runs, we had great defense, the bullpen was great. I kind of messed it up."

Pineiro, now 5-11, had pitched well in his eight starts going back to June 8.

Then Tuesday happened.

"It's hard to win games when you have an eight-run inning, but I'm not going to criticize Joel because he's been a force for us, giving us chances to win for some time now," pitching coach Bryan Price said.

Pineiro said he was out of sync from the beginning. He worked around two walks and a hit in the first three innings and took a 1-0 lead - supplied by Martinez's first-inning RBI single - into the fourth.

Then Ramirez worked him hard for a walk, Nomar Garciaparra doubled and Trot Nixon singled to score two runs. Doug Mirabelli also singled, Pineiro struck out Bill Mueller, Dave McCarty singled to score another run, Johnny Damon walked and Mark Bellhorn drove in another with a ground out.

That gave the Red Sox a 4-1 lead and brought Ortiz to the plate. Four pitches later, it was 7-1 on Ortiz's three-run home run, his 26th of the season.

On the next pitch, Ramirez hit his league-leading 27th homer to left-center and made it 8-1.

Manager Bob Melvin dialed up the bullpen and ended Pineiro's misery after 3 2/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season.

Then it got entertaining.

Against a worn-down Red Sox bullpen, the Mariners hit and they ran and they scored.

Ichiro finished with four hits and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Miguel Olivo and Bret Boone each had three hits. The Mariners scored once in the fourth, twice in the sixth and once in the seventh, cutting the lead to 8-5.

The Mariners' bullpen, just as weary as Boston's, gave the offense a chance to complete the comeback. George Sherrill pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and a walk, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa pitched a scoreless seventh before his leadoff walk cost him a run in the eighth, making it 9-5.

The Mariners scored twice more in the eighth to make it a two-run game - 9-7 - and had the bases loaded with two outs against reliever Alan Embree before Jolbert Cabrera hit a fly to center, ending the inning.

Foulke, who lost a two-run lead when Olivo and Martinez homered in the ninth inning Monday, was nearly as shaky this time. Suzuki led off with a single, Winn walked and Foulke found himself.

He struck out Boone on a changeup.

He froze Martinez on three straight pitches, the last a tailing fastball that nicked the inside corner.

And he fed Jacobsen a diet of changeups, getting him to swing through strike three to end the game with the Mariners' 15th and 16th runners left on base to tie a club record.

Notes

Mechanics 101: Emotion got the best of rookie left-hander Travis Blackley in his previous two outings, but he and pitching coach Bryan Price have worked extensively on mechanics.

The Mariners hope to see the results of that work today, when Blackley starts against the A's.

"There were mechanical issues that probably stemmed from trying to do too much," Price said.

Short hops: The Mariners have scored at least five runs in five consecutive games for the first time this season. They have scored 33 runs in the last five games. ... Left-hander Ron Villone, who made his second start of the season Monday, will get the ball again Saturday against the Angels. ... Owing a little to Bucky-mania and a lot to the presence of the Red, the Mariners drew 46,024, their fifth sellout of the season.

Red Sox 9

Mariners 7

___

Copyright c 2004 The Spokesman-Review
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.