By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
BOSTON – Tony Clark is batting .202, and in Boston he is considered the only reason the Red Sox aren’t undefeated this season.
Jeff Cirillo is hitting .252, or about 60 points below his career average, and neither he nor the Seattle Mariners are overjoyed at his start.
On Sunday in Fenway Park, their seasons collided in a little mid-May drama, culminating in one play that summed up a game in Boston’s 3-2 victory over Seattle.
“You want to know what my day was like? It was like that one play – that was my day,” Cirillo said.
What may look like a pitchers’ duel in the box score was more like a hockey game where one goalie has a spectacular run, and for one day, at least, it was Clark in the goal that made the difference.
Pitcher John Burkett was on the mound and on the ropes in the second inning, the bases loaded, one out and two runs in – courtesy of hits by Dan Wilson and Mark McLemore.
“We were a hit away from breaking the game open,” John Olerud said.
And they thought they had that hit.
Cirillo blistered a ball toward right field and Clark, never known as a defensive specialist, made a spectacular stop, then threw home in time to force baserunner Wilson at the plate.
Burkett exhaled for about 90 seconds, then got the third out on a comebacker from Ruben Sierra, and the Mariners led just 2-1.
“I was thinking two RBI,” Cirillo said of the play.
Now juxtapose that against Boston’s third inning.
Pitcher Freddy Garcia had just given up Nomar Garciaparra’s game-tying two-out double when Brian Daubach lined a fastball down the right field line. John Olerud, a Gold Glove first baseman, dove for the ball – but it ticked off the end of his glove and rolled into foul territory as Garciaparra scored.
The two teams played six more innings. The score never changed.
“Sometimes it’s not even a game of inches, it’s less,” Olerud said. “It’s frustrating, because I thought I had a chance at the ball. I’ve been in Tony’s situation, too, and there’s nothing more satisfying than taking runs away from a team.”
Both the Mariners and Red Sox had other chances, but either Garcia denied Boston or Seattle’s threats sputtered out – including their last one.
Cirillo drew a two-out walk in the ninth inning, and manager Lou Piniella went to his bench for pinch-runner Luis Ugueto. No one in the park doubted what was coming next: Ugueto was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts this year. With Sierra at the plate, Piniella green-lighted Ugueto.
“I told him if the hitter fell behind and he got a good jump, to go,” Piniella said.
Sierra fell behind in the count, 0-1, and Ugueto broke for second. Former Mariner Jason Varitek threw him out at second base to end the game.
Asked why he ran, Piniella shook his head.
“We play that way,” he said. “It’s a chance, but if we hadn’t played that way we wouldn’t be in first place today.
“We had opportunities early and didn’t take advantage. That’s what the game came down to, those first few innings.”
Being second-guessed about strategy didn’t bother Piniella, but what followed clearly did. When a Boston radio reporter began a rather long-winded question about the Mariners taking two of three at Safeco Field, then the Sox taking two of three in Fenway Park, he interrupted.
“It’s May!” Piniella said. “You’re making way too much of April series and May series – they’re just games on the schedule. Come see me in September.”
In the clubhouse, McLemore echoed his manager.
“We played hard, they played hard, it’s May 19 or something,” he said. “Do you think on Sept. 29, if they’re trying to wrap up the American League East and we’re trying to wrap up the American League West, anyone is going to be talking about this series?
“You play every game to win, but you have to look at the big picture. There’s 162 games. We’ve played – what? – 43?”
With just 119 left to play, Garcia pitched his first complete game of the year, the Mariners’ first of the season and the seventh of his career. He seemed to lose focus early in the game – Boston had five of its nine hits in the first three innings.
In fact, after Daubach’s go-ahead double in the third and the walk that followed it, Piniella walked to the mound to talk to his right-hander.
“I told him to concentrate on the hitter, to get us out of the inning and get on with it,” Piniella said.
Garcia got out of the inning and didn’t allow another run over the last five innings he pitched.
“We had our best pitcher on the mound and he pitched a great game,” Cirillo said. “We scored two runs for him. That’s not enough. I had chances to make something happen, and on one play I got robbed. On the other, I just didn’t get anything done.”
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