M’s on the rebound

SEATTLE – Of all the Seattle Mariners needing bounceback seasons in 2006, Joel Pineiro bore maybe the largest burden on the team’s pitching staff.

Last season was a personal nightmare, when Pineiro turned high hopes into a 7-11 record amid arm problems and a temporary removal from the starting rotation in May.

Tuesday, Pineiro was the pitcher the Mariners not only hoped he would become, but one they badly need to have a turnaround season.

He held the Los Angeles Angels to seven hits and three runs in 61/3 innings, then held his breath along with everyone else as the Mariners’ bullpen barely survived at the finish in a 10-8 victory at Safeco Field.

“I want to have a big year,” Pineiro said. “Being healthy is the No. 1 thing. I felt strong when I finished off last year, and I felt strong at spring training this year.

“But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

That was never so true as Tuesday.

Pineiro’s first victory since Sept. 12 last year – also against the Angels – got less and less secure after Los Angeles scored twice off reliever J.J. Putz in the eighth to make it a 6-5 game

Then, in the bottom of the eighth, the Angels challenged Richie Sexson one time too many. Sexson had struck out in the fourth inning after the Angels intentionally walked Raul Ibanez to load the bases with one out, and in the eighth they did the same thing.

Ichiro Suzuki had led off with a single and Jose Lopez moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt. Angels pitcher Esteban Yan intentionally walked Ibanez again to set up a power-on-power battle of right-handers.

Yan threw a breaking ball for strike one, then tried to fire a fastball past Sexson. The pitch tailed over the middle of the plate, and Sexson drove it on a line over the fence in left field.

The ball never touched the ground; closer Eddie Guardado caught it between warmup pitches as he prepared to work the ninth.

It became an inning of peril.

Guardado, in his first appearance of the season, needed nearly all of that cushion.

The Angels whacked him around for three hits and three runs, including Tim Salmon’s first career pinch-hit homer when he led off the ninth. Guardado finally ended the game by getting Darin Erstad to fly out.

“Eddie threw more pitches in that inning than he did all spring training,” manager Mike Hargrove said.

With Putz and Rafael Soriano having thrown in back-to-back games, and Guardado throwing so many pitches, Hargrove was asked who would finish today if he needed a closer.

“Eddie,” he said without hesitation. “He threw 40 pitches today. He’s got another 12 left.”

The bullpen failure, especially by Guardado, didn’t concern Hargrove.

“We’ve got to get him work,” he said. “More times than not when you bring in a closer like this just to get him some work, that’s going to happen. He’ll be better next time.”

Pineiro and the Mariners’ early offense – led by Kenji Johjima, who hit his second home run in as many days and also drove in a run in the eighth – became forgotten heroes because of the furious finish.

Pineiro stopped the Angels with first-pitch strikes and solid command of all of his pitches in five scoreless innings. He pitched only one 1-2-3 inning, the fifth, but wasn’t in serious trouble until the sixth when he gave up back-to-back singles, then misplaced a fastball that Garret Anderson pulled into the right-field seats, cutting into the Mariners’ 6-0 lead.

Pineiro gave up two one-out singles in the seventh and Hargrove turned to the bullpen.

Right-hander Rafael Soriano got Orlando Cabrera on a pop foul deep down the left-field line, where third baseman Adrian Beltre made an over-the-shoulder catch with his back to the infield after a long run. Soriano then got Vladimir Guerrero to pop out to Johjima behind the plate.

Putz worked the eighth, allowing Rivera’s two-run homer to make the score 6-5 and Guardado, blessed with a 10-5 lead, needed it in the ninth before getting the final out on the seventh batter he faced.

“My mouth is a little dry,” Hargrove said when it finally ended.