By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
OAKLAND – The Seattle Mariners ate their young Tuesday. Or the baseball equivalent.
On a night when rookie right-hander Rafael Soriano was brilliant, he earned no decision when the Mariners failed to convert point-blank scoring opportunities again and again.
Far worse, rookie Chris Snelling was lost for the season trying to follow third base coach Dave Myers’ confusing second inning orders, when a go-go-go sign became a stop-stop-stop sign after the kid had rounded third base.
In the end, after the Mariners had the go-ahead run thrown out at the plate in the top of the 10th inning, the Oakland Athletics pushed home a run in the bottom half, pulling out a 3-2 victory that left Seattle muttering.
Snelling, a 20-year-old outfielder sustained what appeared to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Snelling had walked to lead off the inning, and when Desi Relaford doubled, third base coach Myers waved Snelling home – then threw up both arms to stop him after Snelling had rounded third base.
Snelling tried to stop, crumpled and grabbed his left knee.
Manager Lou Piniella and assistant trainer Tom Newberg had to help Snelling off the field.
In just his fourth professional season, Snelling had batted over .300 at each stop until making the jump from Class AA San Antonio to the major leagues on May 25. Over eight games with the Mariners, Snelling batted .148 with a home run and three RBI.
He’ll be given a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test Friday in Seattle when the team returns from its current trip, but the Mariners seemed certain the diagnosis would stand.
As Piniella and assistant general manager Lee Pelekoudas huddled behind closed doors after the game – coming up with a roster move to replace Snelling – there wasn’t much anyone could come up with by way of explanation for how Seattle played.
The aspect of their game the Mariners take such pride in – execution of fundamentals – was a no-show Tuesday when they needed it most.
The Mariners piled up 14 hits, the Athletics finished with five.
There were baserunning foulups. There were bunts that would have turned the game around but weren’t laid down.
There were bunts that were laid down, but badly, and turned into rally-numbing outs.
It was, for all of regulation, a black comedy of Seattle errors in the clutch, with Ben Davis, Snelling, Mark McLemore and Ichiro Suzuki all running into outs on the bases.
How bad was it?
Seattle opened the fifth inning with four consecutive singles by Davis, Jeff Cirillo, McLemore and Mike Cameron, and still scored just one run. It wasn’t easy.
After Davis singled, Cirillo lined a ball toward the line in left field and outfielder Adam Piatt made a dive for it but didn’t make the catch.
Davis, however, thought he had.
So as Cirillo rounded first with his single, he was met by Davis coming back from second base.
Cirillo screamed and pointed toward second. First base coach John Moses screamed and pointed toward second base. Davis saw neither and ran past Cirillo and perched on first.
Umpires huddled. Players shuffled their feet. In the end, Cirillo was called out for passing a runner – though he was standing still when he did so.
McLemore followed with another single, which would have scored a run, and Davis took third base. Cameron beat out an infield single and Davis beat shortstop Miguel Tejeda’s throw home for a run.
Even then, the Mariners couldn’t hold a rally together. On a hit-and-run, Suzuki struck out and McLemore was tagged out in a rundown.
For all that, there was a Soriano’s third major league start, a seven-inning tour-de-force in which he allowed two hits – a pair of solo home runs to Eric Chavez.
There was superb defense at times, as when Ruben Sierra reached over the wall in left field to steal what would have been a third Chavez home run.
All last week, the Mariners talked about winning the games they ought to win. This time around, they lost one they probably deserved to lose.
Take Seattle’s seventh inning.
Relaford and Davis singled to open the inning and Cirillo was asked to sacrifice them along. Cirillo fouled three bunt attempts and was out.
And with the runners unable to advance, Relaford could not score from second base on McLemore’s single, and Cameron ended the inning grounding into a double play.
Get the bunt down, the Mariners score.
If they score, they win in nine innings.
Instead, they went to the 10th inning and continued to make mistakes, though the last was one of aggression.
Suzuki and John Olerud drew one-out walks from closer Billy Koch. Bret Boone hit a sharp ground ball to first base and John Mabry threw to second to force Olerud.
Tejeda’s return throw was too late to get Boone and Ichiro tried to score all the way from second base. Koch’s throw home caught him easily.
“He went on his own,” Myers said..
Shigetoshi Hasegawa was tagged with the loss when he allowed a walk and two hits in the 10th inning.
Expect the Mariners to bring someone in from their minor league system today to replace Snelling on the roster.
If he’s young, he may want to think twice about showing.
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