By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
BALTIMORE – One third of the way through their season, the Seattle Mariners are on pace to win 102 games – numbers that didn’t mean much Saturday night.
Lou Piniella blew out of the clubhouse without a word. The usually stoic pitching coach Bryan Price took off his jersey and threw it across the coaches room a full 30 minutes after the game.
Last-pitch losses do that, and for the second time in as many nights, the Mariners lost a lead, then a game, to the Baltimore Orioles – this time 4-3 on the last pitch of the night.
“Our trademark the last few seasons has been finishing up games where we have a lead,” catcher Dan Wilson said. “To lose two in a row that way …
“If we’ve learned anything from last year, it’s that you have to win the games you’re supposed to win.”
A night earlier, Seattle had lost a lead in the ninth inning, then the game in the 10th when John Halama threw away a bunt to set up Baltimore’s winning rally.
This time around, it was closer Kazuhiro Sasaki who pounced off the mound to field a sacrifice bunt and then threw it away to put runners on second and third base with no one out and a one-run lead.
Piniella ordered cleanup hitter Jeff Conine walked to set up the force, and Sasaki and Wilson huddled briefly to agree on what they wanted to do.
“You need a ground ball there, something that can start a home to first double play, get you out of trouble,” Wilson said.
At first base, former Gold Glover John Olerud played in and off the line.
“A single beats you, so there’s no sense guarding the line and cutting down your range,” he said. “I played in. I’m looking to throw home and get at least one.”
On the mound, Sasaki unleashed a forkball – the pitch that has made his career – and designated hitter Jay Gibbons got his bat on top of it. Ground ball toward first.
Right down the line.
“We got the ground ball, but it was right on the foul line,” Wilson said.
“One foot, maybe it’s a double play,” Olerud said. “I couldn’t get it. ”
The ball bounced into right field, two runs scored, and what had appeared likely to become the Mariners 35th win of the season became their 20th loss.
Some tempers didn’t hold.
“You expect to win these games because our bullpen is so good,” Olerud said. “You make mistakes on bunts the last inning, you put yourself in a tough spot.”
Hours before this game, Piniella was still mildly irritated by the 10th inning error of a night earlier. He wasn’t alone.
“When the other team sacrifices, they’re giving up an out to move a runner,” he said. “You have to take that out and then get two more. You can’t give it back.”
When you do, you lose, he said.
And that was before the Mariners did it again.
Backing one of James Baldwin’s finest starts of the season, the Mariners got RBI from Mark McLemore and Olerud in the sixth inning for a 2-0 lead.
Baldwin gave up a run in the sixth, another in the seventh but still left the game with a 3-2 lead courtesy of Mike Cameron’s RBI double.
“I felt better than I had in a while,” said Baldwin, who two extra days between starts. “I made a couple of mistakes, but this is the kind of game our bullpen usually finishes.
“Is it a surprise when it goes bad? Sure. Those guys are too good, they work too hard to have these things happen. I’m surprised by the last two nights, and I’ll be surprised whenever it happens again. They’re that good.”
Sasaki, who hadn’t allowed an earned run all season – 20 2/3 innings over two months – was looking for his 13th save. Gary Matthews beat out an infield single to second base to open the ninth, and the Orioles went to the bunt.
Chris Singleton dropped one down the third base line. Sasaki came off the mound and despite being called off the play by third baseman Jeff Cirillo fielded the ball and threw into the baserunner.
The play would have been far easier for Cirillo coming in than for Sasaki, who had to field, turn and then throw to first.
“He probably got off the mound too quickly, in hindsight,” Cirillo said. “That’s the kind of game we haven’t lost all year, then we lose two in a row?”
“Those are games we win,” Cameron said. “We scratch and claw for runs, we get a good start and take it to the ninth inning, that’s our game. Losing two in a row, that’s unbelievable.”
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