By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
ARLINGTON, Texas – After flying all night, sleeping half the day and learning that Edgar Martinez would be undergoing surgery today, the Seattle Mariners acted as if none of it had happened.
In the first inning of their first matchup of the season with the Rangers, the Mariners flattened Texas early, riding Ruben Sierra’s grand slam to what became a 7-3 Seattle victory.
“You hurt for Edgar and we’re going to miss him in the lineup,” Bret Boone said, “but there are games to be won and we have to win them with what we have.”
And without Martinez, what do they have?
“Ruben Sierra can hit,” Arthur Rhodes said. “We had a chance to hurt them early and he came through.
“It’s early in the season, but these games within your own division, all the ground you take is big.”
Ten games into their season, the Rangers are Exhibit A. They’ll awaken this morning 4 1/2 games behind the Mariners.
“It’s too early to bury anybody, but every game you win is ground someone else has to make up,” Rhodes said.
Without being particularly sharp, Jamie Moyer won for the first time, though he needed 101 pitches to get 15 outs. From the fifth inning on, the game was in the hands of Seattle’s bullpen – and the Rangers couldn’t jar it loose.
The usual cast of characters finished it: Rhodes and Jeff Nelson and Kazuhiro Sasaki. The formula remains as simple today as it did a year ago with the Mariners, who know any lead taken into the middle innings is likely to hold up.
“It’s how we play,” Mike Cameron said. “We’ve learned how to win games, learned what it takes. You fly all night, you try to grab some sleep during the day and show up here?
“Forget about it – just play. That’s all that matters.”
It may have taken the usual nine innings, but this one might as well have been decided after six batters. As Ismael Valdes tried to get through the first inning, Ichiro Suzuki slapped a single to left field and Jeff Cirillo beat out a bunt, the first of his three hits.
Boone walked to load the bases, and after John Olerud popped out, Valdes hit Cameron with a pitch to make it 1-0.
Sierra watched two pitches miss the strike zone and then did what he’d done four other times in his career – slammed a bases loaded home run.
“It felt good to do it early, it felt good to do it against this team,” said Sierra, who was the American League Comeback Player of the Year last season in Texas.
His reward?
“They didn’t ask me back,” he said, shrugging. “I guess they made their decision, I made mine. I made the right one.”
Afterward, manager Lou Piniella was asked how his team seemed able to rise up to regular season disasters like the loss of Martinez.
“Confidence is a big part of it,” he said. “These guys think they should win every game, and they don’t let much distract them.”
No one expected Seattle to match its remarkable start of last season, and certainly no Mariner is talking about it now. But after 11 games this season, Seattle’s 8-3 record is exactly the same as it was at the same point in 2001.
“We play to win,” Rhodes said. “We don’t look ahead, we don’t look back, we show up every day and play nine hard innings no matter who we’re facing.
“We’re not trying to eliminate anybody in April. We’re just trying to win every game we play.”
Their first matchup against former teammate Alex Rodriguez was without much drama. Rodriguez went 2-for-4, but his seventh-inning single and ninth inning triple neither produced nor led to a Texas run.
Moyer uncharacteristically walked four in five innings, including A-Rod. Not once in his five innings did he retire the Rangers in order, and still Texas could score only once while he was on the mound.
“Jamie wasn’t as sharp as he often is, and when a finesse pitcher throws 100 pitches in five innings, you know that,” Piniella said. “But it’s a win.”
As for his DH for the foreseeable future, Piniella smiled.
“Ruben has some production left in his bat,” he said. “Today we had the chance to jump on Valdes early, and Ruben delivered. He got into a hitter’s count and drove the ball over that wall in right center field. I said in spring training, he’ll help us. I’ll say it again now.”
In the clubhouse, Boone agreed.
“I’d never in a million years want to lose Edgar, he’s like a safety pin to this team, he keeps it together,” Boone said. “But Ruben? I’m glad we’ve got him. Look at what he did last season. Now we need him more than ever.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
