By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
CHICAGO – A crust of bread looks good to a hungry man. Imagine how 13 well-timed White Sox hits looked to Lou Piniella.
On a night when the Seattle manager sent Joel Pineiro to the mound – and then went to the man Pineiro replaced in the rotation – there seemed to be no stopping Chicago’s offense.
And no starting the Mariners.
Clearly concerned about his offense before the Mariners’ 26th game of the season, imagine Piniella’s state after Seattle lost for the fourth time in five games, 8-4.
The last two Mariners victories have been by 1-0 scores, which meant that once Seattle gave up its first run Tuesday it was in serious trouble.
“You know it’s going to come around, we know everyone in here is capable of producing,” Mike Cameron said. “We’re just not putting anything together right now.”
Seattle had nine hits, but the total was misleading – Carlos Guillen had three, Ichiro Suzuki two more.
“What we’re not getting is that four, five-hit rally,” Piniella said.
Bret Boone, trying to keep it light after another loss, made fun of his April, which ended with him batting .222.
“Hey, we won 18 games, that’s not a bad month,” Boone said. “Of course, to get my check today I needed a gun and a mask … “
Boone-speak for the obvious: He had a tough month.
Pineiro had a great month in the bullpen – and a bad day in the rotation.
“Nothing worked,” Pineiro said. “My sinker was too low. My fastball to high. If I threw a breaking pitch it broke too far. I lost a little focus out there. I just didn’t have a thing.”
The Mariners seized a 3-1 lead in the second inning and held it, well, until the White Sox came to bat.
Then Pineiro lost control of the strike zone, fell behind most everyone he faced and allowed Chicago to tie the game, helping the Sox along with a hit batter and a walk.
In his first start of the season since replacing Paul Abbott, Pineiro never quite seemed himself, and he needed 43 pitches to get three outs in the second inning. By the time he’s thrown 72 pitches, he’d still only recorded six outs.
“It was like my first major league start last year,” Pineiro said. “I didn’t know where anything was going and I was trying to make something happen.”
Back in a game for the first time since being sent to the bullpen, Abbott bailed Pineiro out of a jam, retiring three straight batters with a pair of runners on base.
“He got three big outs that inning,” Piniella said. “Then he gave up some runs.”
Each of the first four Chicago hitters he faced in the fourth inning reached base, and once Frank Thomas doubled and Maglio Ordonez homered, Seattle was down 7-3.
Abbott wanted to be more aggressive than he’d been most of April, but poor location may have overwhelmed that attitude change. On the home run to Ordonez, for instance, Abbott’s fastball was waist high and over the middle of the plate – briefly.
“It was a big step for me,” Abbott said. “That one inning I was hit, but I made strides out there. I changed my arm angle, I tried to make every pitch the best one I could make. Now it’s just a matter of fine-tuning it.”
For all that, Piniella can live with poorly pitched games. He knows they happen.
What galls him his the Mariners inability to string together hits, to produce in the game-breaking situations that fuel or gut rallies. For an inning Tuesday, it looked as if Seattle might have shaken loose from its eight-game doldrums.
After John Olerud opened the second inning with a walk, Ruben Sierra doubled, Mike Cameron singled and Carlos Guillen doubled – the kind of uprising that let Seattle lead the American League in runs scored until …
Well, until this past week.
“You worry sometimes,” Guillen said, “but it will turn around.”
Cameron may be the best example of Seattle’s up and down April. By April 16, he had 11 RBI. After the 16th, he had one.
“When we click, we make things happen up and down the lineup,” Cameron said. “Early in April, we did that. The last week or so, we didn’t.”
The loss was Seattle’s first of the year in 11 road games and gave the team an 18-8 record for April.
“That’s not a bad record at all,” Boone said, “but thank God April is over. That’s something to smile about.”
“We’ve got some things to work through, no question,” Piniella said.
“We’ve got to be more consistent, offensively. We need to get our rotation pitching consistently. It’s not all together yet, but it will be. It will be.”
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