A’s hand M’s third straight loss for first time this season

By Larry LaRue

The News Tribune

OAKLAND – Norm Charlton sipped a beer and said, ‘It’s all over. We’re done.”

John Olerud tugged on his jeans. “The sky is falling,” he said.

And Lou Piniella wasn’t cutting his own throat Saturday, merely shaving it after the Seattle Mariners lost to the Oakland Athletics, 11-2 – handing the Mariners three consecutive losses for the first time all year.

It was not lost on anyone that since Seattle clinched the American League West at home Wednesday night, the team has gone 0-3.

“Mentally, I think we haven’t had our edge the last few days,” hitting coach Gerald Perry said. “It’s not a lack of effort, it’s not that guys aren’t busting their butts. But we won the division – and the A’s are still playing to get into the playoffs.

“You play a good team when you’re not totally into it … ”

After losing their first road series of the season, no one on the Mariners was shrugging the defeat off – nor did anyone suggest the A’s hadn’t earned the last two wins.

From the outset, however, the A’s looked like a hungry team and the Mariners looked more like a spring training team – and by the fifth inning the team had Ed Sprague, Eugene Kinsdale and Pat Borders in the lineup.

“C’mon, look at the last few days,” Jay Buhner said. “Lou’s getting guys work, getting everybody at-bats. You haven’t seen our ‘A’ lineup out there – and what’s wrong with giving guys a little mental lobotomy once in a while. We’re not setting up pitching matchups, we’re just trying to get everybody back in the flow.

“Losing three in a row isn’t something we wanted, but my God, what team in baseball hasn’t lost three in a row?”

One.

Since 1900, only the 1902 Pirates got through a year without losing three in a row.

“It was going to happen, sooner or later, and I’d rather have it happen now than in about three weeks,” Piniella said. “Are we playing like we have all year. No. Will we again? Yes.”

With Bret Boone out again – he’ll talk his way into the lineup today – Mark McLemore started the game at second base, and for one of the few times this season, he made a mistake that burned the Mariners.

Rookie Joel Pineiro was struggling in the first inning, pitching for the first time since Sept. 8, and loaded the bases with one out. Then he got third baseman Eric Chavez to hit a ground ball to McLemore.

“Tailor-made double play,” McLemore said. “I tried to hurry, tried to turn too quickly. I missed it.”

Instead of being out of the inning, Pineiro was behind, 1-0. A sacrifice fly got home another run, a passed ball by catcher Tom Lampkin scored another – and by the time Pineiro got the third out he was down, 5-0.

“Sometimes you get away with mistakes,” McLemore said. “Against a good team, and the A’s are a very good team, you don’t.”

Pineiro lasted two innings, then gave way to a parade of Seattle relievers – Dennis Stark, Charlton, Jeff Nelson and Jose Paniagua.

“Given the seven-day break and the fact that some of our pitchers hadn’t worked in 12-14 days, it is a bit more like spring training,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “You can’t just pitch for the matchups you might normally try to get, you have to get everybody work.

“You know the manager,” Piniella said. “You think we’ll be doing this long?”

“We’re beat up, we’re trying to get people work and we’re playing Oakland,” Piniella said.

Not a small factor.

“We’re not playing the Angels now,” Paul Abbott said. “They were looking ahead to next year, the A’s are still trying to get into the post-season. You take the layoff, the fact that we clinched – yeah, there’s been a bit of a let down. Do I think it will last long? No.”

Whatever the Mariners were doing, the A’s were doing it better Saturday. There were five home runs hit, and four belonged to Oakland players. Pineiro couldn’t get past two innings, A’s starter Erik Hiljus went 5 2/3 innings and allowed just two runs.

Time and again, the Mariners threatened. Time after time, the A’s stopped them.

“What we’re missing is that big hit, and we had three or four innings today when it was there to be had,” Perry said. “We didn’t get it.”

The Mariners left 12 runners on base.

“You can’t beat the best teams without playing your best,” Arthur Rhodes said. “Maybe a few of us have lost a little edge. We won’t let it stay that way. We have work to do, goals to get.”

“They played a good game, we didn’t,” Mike Cameron said. “When we had the opportunity, they stopped us. When we had the chance to stop them in the first inning, we made a mistake and they were gone.”