Of all their strengths, it’ll be the relief corps that makes or breaks Mariners
By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — With apologies to the rookie who won the league batting title, the second baseman who had the best year of his career and the defense that plays the field better than any team in the major leagues, Jerry Narron says he knows why the Seattle Mariners will win the World Series.
"It takes a bullpen to win it all, and they’ve got the best bullpen in baseball," the Texas Rangers manager said.
Narron suffered the wrath of Ichiro Suzuki, Bret Boone and a balanced Mariners team that beat the Rangers in three of four games this past weekend. But it’s that one sometimes unheralded element — the bullpen — that will make this a championship team, Narron predicts.
The first step in that quest will be taken today when the Mariners host the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Safeco Field.
Freddy Garcia will start on the mound for the Mariners, and behind him will be the comfort of a relief corps that held opponents to a .202 regular-season batting average, 42 points lower than anyone else in the league.
Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price can’t recall a championship team, of this era at least, that didn’t have strong relief pitching.
"And it’s not just the closer, but the guys who get you to the closer," Price said.
Never was that more apparent, and painful to the Mariners, than last year.
They came within two victories of reaching the World Series, and it was the failure of the setup men that cost them in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees.
The Mariners allowed 19 runs after the sixth inning in that series, including a three-run homer by New York’s David Justice in a lefty-lefty matchup against Arthur Rhodes that turned Game 6 in the seventh inning.
Rhodes was the only left-handed reliever on the staff last year, and he wore down after being used constantly during the Mariners’ September drive to clinch a playoff spot.
When October arrived, he’d run out of gas. He fell behind in the count and threw that fastball to Justice, and nobody was surprised at the result.
"We didn’t have a second lefty we could lean on like we do now," Price said.
The bullpen, perhaps two arms short of competing with the Yankees last year, is complete in 2001.
The Mariners signed right-handed setup specialist Jeff Nelson and added veteran left-hander Norm Charlton to a relief corps that brought back closer Kazuhiro Sasaki and right-handed setup man Jose Paniagua. Left-hander John Halama will pitch long relief and right-hander Paul Abbott, a 17-game winner who may start late in the series, will spend the first two games in the bullpen.
"If you’re light in the bullpen, it’ll be apparent pretty early," Price said. "There’s not many complete-game pitchers left anymore. You can forget about the 1950s and the ’40s and ’30s, when it was a given."
Complete games are the exception now, especially in the playoffs when teams don’t hesitate to use their relievers. Sometimes it’s early and often.
"You’re going to have to match up from the left and right side," Price said. "And quite possibly you’re going to have to do that twice. That’s why Norm (Charlton) has given us such a huge boost. A lot of times you may want to go to Rhodes, but you say to yourself, ‘These same lefties are going to come up one more time, so you go with your first lefty and then bring in your second lefty later."
That formula helped the Mariners tie the major league record with 116 victories this season with a relief staff that led the American League with a 3.04 ERA.
Mariners catcher Dan Wilson isn’t afraid to call it the best bullpen in baseball.
"I feel that way and I think some of the numbers show that," he said. "You look at their wins, their ERAs, our long guys, our short guys, they’ve all got outstanding numbers.
"Games are won and lost most times between the sixth and eighth innings. That’s a crucial time of the ballgame. The starter is starting to get tired and that’s the time for the bullpen to take over, and that’s when we’ve been successful this year. In a playoff situation, it’s very much the same way."
As a hitter, Wilson has been on the other side of that equation, facing teams like the Yankees last year with Mike Stanton, Nelson and Mariano Rivera. It’s not a fun experience.
"It creates a sense of urgency for an offense," Wilson said. "You need to get to a starter early. You don’t want to get to the sixth, seventh, eighth inning down by a run or down by two runs because of that bullpen."
Now the Mariners have that type of relief pitching, and they’re hanging a lot of hopes on it.
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