Mariners Update

  • Tuesday, May 21, 2002 9:00pm
  • Sports

Opponent: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

When: 7:05 p.m.

Where: Safeco Field

TV: Fox Sports Net (cable)

Radio: KIRO (710 AM)

Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Joel Pineiro (4-0, 1.85 earned run average) vs. right-hander Ryan Rupe (3-5, 5.85)

Rookie right-hander Rafael Soriano will start Saturday’s game against the Orioles and, manager Lou Piniella hopes, become a fixture in the five-man rotation. “We’re going to give this young man a chance to pitch,” Piniella said. “We like his stuff.”

Piniella also hopes Soriano helps reverse a few alarming statistics. The Mariners’ starting pitchers are 16-13 this season and the relievers are 13-1.

“We need to stabilize our starting rotation,” Piniella said. “We’ve got to try something.”

Soriano has been nothing less than spectacular in his two outings since being called up from Class AA San Antonio on May 1. He has struck out six, allowed two hits and hasn’t given up a run in five innings.

“I’d like to see nothing more than him to take the ball and run with it,” Piniella said. “He’s got a good arm, good stuff, he’s shown poise and he’s got a lot of talent.”

If Soriano helps solidify a wobbly starting rotation, he also may indirectly help straighten a bullpen that became thin with injuries to Jeff Nelson and Paul Abbott.

Left-hander John Halama, who would have started Saturday, will return to the bullpen and give Piniella a veteran for the long relief role.

“I need one long person out there,” Piniella said. “I’ve got six right-handers in the bullpen already, and it makes it tough to have seven.”

The great smokeout: Long after it had cleared from their eyes and lungs, the smoke from Sunday’s bus fire in Boston still was think in the minds of the Mariners.

Each had a personal version of the tale to tell, but all agreed that it was a frightening experience that could have been much worse.

Piniella gave most of the credit to the driver of the first team bus, who noticed in his mirrors that the second bus – carrying mostly veteran players – was in trouble. He stopped and gave players a place to escape as an engine fire in the second bus filled the Ted Williams Tunnel with a suffocating black smoke cloud.

“Give that bus driver credit for pulling off and waiting,” Piniella said. “It was a long way to the end of the tunnel. If they’d had to walk another quarter mile or so, a few of them would have been in a little trouble. That smoke was awfully dark and you couldn’t see. When the guys came out of the tunnel and blew their noses, nothing but black came out.”

Second baseman Bret Boone was surprised at the amount of smoke in the tunnel.

“It reminded me of the smoke from the terrorist attacks,” Boone said. “I got out of the bus and the whole tunnel was full of smoke. I didn’t see anything. I just ran.”

Piniella and several players were given oxygen after they arrived at the airport for the flight back to Seattle.

“I wasn’t short of breath, but I was woozy,” Piniella said.

First baseman John Olerud was just as interested in hearing the first-hand reports as reporters were. Olerud stayed an extra day in Boston to visit with family members living on the East Coast and didn’t know about it until he read a newspaper the next day.

“The first I heard about it was 24 hours later,” Olerud said. “So if you want to have your finger on the pulse of this team, come to me.”

Edgar almost ready: Edgar Martinez, on the DL since surgery April 13 to remove a tendon behind his left knee, could return to the team by Tuesday.

Martinez will run the bases today and, if he has no soreness, may report to extended spring training and play some games this weekend at the team’s complex in Peoria, Ariz.

All of the Mariners’ minor league teams are playing on the road this weekend, so Piniella believes intersquad games in Peoria will serve Martinez just as well.

“He can play in a lot of games at once and get all the at-bats he wants,” Piniella said. “He can get an at-bat every inning that way.”

The only other injured Mariner, relief pitcher Jeff Nelson, has the staples removed from his surgically repaired right elbow on Monday and said he feels great.

“My mobility is really coming back,” said Nelson, who had three bone chips removed on May 10. “Right now I’m doing strength stuff, a lot of stretching and icing.”

Abbott makes progress: Pitcher Paul Abbott continued his comeback from an inflamed right shoulder with a pain-free throwing session off flat ground Tuesday.

“It was a real good session,” said Abbott, who went 1-3 with an 11.96 ERA before landing on the disabled list May 8.

He is scheduled to throw from the bullpen mound on Thursday, possibly a simulated game over the weekend and, if those go well, make a minor-league rehab assignment with the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers.

He hopes to return to the team by June 4.

Kirby Arnold

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