Mariners bust out the sticks

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 17, 2004

KANSAS CITY – A believer in statistics, Bob Melvin did what he always does before the Seattle Mariners open a series: check the hitters versus pitchers matchups.

“There were none,” Melvin said.

There are now.

Not one of the Kansas City Royals had ever faced Bobby Madritsch in a major league game – and none of the Mariners had laid eyes on Darrell May. That changed fast when Madritsch continued to prove he can pitch in the major leagues, and Seattle pounded May and Kansas City, 16-3.

“We’ve had so many of these walk-off, blow-out wins, haven’t we?” asked Bret Boone, shaking his head.

It was a rare laugher for the Mariners, a game in which they seized an immediate lead on Ichiro Suzuki’s first-inning home run and then added … and added … and added.

While Madritsch held the Royals to five hits in seven innings, his teammates were piling up offense.

* Ichiro had four hits and a walk – and left the game after seven innings batting a league-leading .367.

* Raul Ibanez had a career-high five hits against his former teammates, scored three runs and lifted his season average from .265 to a more respectable .277.

* Boone had two hits, both home runs – No. 16 and No. 17 – driving in four runs. His 61 RBI leads the club by nine.

The Royals couldn’t stop them, and had trouble just avoiding the Mariners, hitting three hitters without getting a warning from plate umpire Randy Marsh.

One of those hit batsmen, rookie third baseman Justin Leone, suffered a broken left hand and is almost certainly out for the remainder of the season.

“We wanted to see how he adjusted the next five, six weeks,” manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s when you see if a kid can play, when he adjusts to what teams try to do to him. It’s a shame.”

More than likely, Tacoma infielder Ramon Santiago will join the team before tonight’s game.

Madritsch hit one man in seven innings – sending Ken Harvey to the training room for x-rays on his left elbow – but otherwise was content to get outs.

And get them he did.

Only one of his seven innings was a 1-2-3 affair, but baserunners didn’t seem to phase him. But then, not much has since the one-time Independent League left-hander made the majors.

In his seventh appearance since joining Seattle on July 21, Madritsch ran his record to 3-0, trimmed his big-league earned run average to 2.32 and continued to impress his teammates and manager.

“The kid is nails,” Boone said.

As for Madritsch, he grinned at the victory. “Early on, the only pitch I could throw over the plate was the changeup,” he said. “Every time I let a fastball loose, it was high. During the game I talked to Bryan Price, Jamie Moyer, Joel Pineiro, Ron Villone – ‘How do you get the ball down when you’re up like that?’ “

Whatever answers he got, they worked.

“My job with that lead was simple, throw strikes,” Madritsch said. “This one belonged to the offense.”

Twenty hits spread across the Mariners side of the box score and three Mariners – Ichiro, Ibanez and rookie Bucky Jacobsen – combined for 12 of those.

“The results are good, but I feel normal,” Ichiro said after pushing his way to his 189th hit of the season. Nearby, coach Rene Lachemann wasn’t buying it.

“He’s had more hits in the last two weeks than I had in my whole career – including Little League,” Lachemann joked.