By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
NEW YORK – Thirty teams had the chance to pick up Ruben Sierra last winter, and only one – the Seattle Mariners – tried very hard to get it done.
He was supposed to platoon in left field, come off the bench and serve as insurance for designated hitter Edgar Martinez, be a small piece to a much larger puzzle.
Thirty-one games into the season, Sierra is the American League’s leading hitter and, after Seattle’s 10-6 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday, a major factor in the Mariners’ 22-9 start.
“I don’t even want to think where we’d be without Ruben,” manager Lou Piniella said.
Nor does he have to. When Martinez went down with a torn hamstring tendon on April 11, the team had a 7-3 record. In 21 games since then, with Sierra playing somewhere every day, Seattle has gone 15-6.
“People are always evaluating teams by saying ‘if we stay healthy,’” general manager Pat Gillick said. “The truth is, no one ever does. That’s why you look for flexibility on your roster, guys like Desi Relaford, Mark McLemore, Ruben Sierra – guys who can fill more than one role.”
On a spring Sunday in New York, two veteran hitters and offseason additions – Sierra and third baseman Jeff Cirillo – split six hits between them, accounted for six RBI and helped Joel Pineiro win his first game as a starting pitcher this year.
Knocked out after two innings in his first start, Pineiro survived a rocky first inning before settling into a rhythm reminiscent of the way he pitched a year ago.
After Alfonso Soriano singled to lead off the game, Bernie Williams belted a ball up the alley in left center field that Mike Cameron snatched out of the air with a marvelous leaping catch.
The next batter, Derek Jeter, hit a bouncing bullet up the middle – a shot that Pineiro knocked down with the sole of his left shoe, then turned into an out.
From there, Pineiro looked every bit the confident young right-hander Seattle and its fans fell in love with a year ago, and the Yankees couldn’t seem to break through against him.
“We needed a good effort from him today, and he gave us one,” Piniella said.
David Wells, meanwhile, couldn’t seem to stop the Mariners.
Seattle nicked Wells for a run in the first after Ichiro Suzuki singled and Bret Boone doubled. They got two more in the third inning when, with two outs, Sierra lined a single into center that scored both Ichiro and Boone.
Ichiro scored a third time in the fifth inning, singling and working his way around to third base before John Olerud brought him home with a sacrifice fly.
All that got Pineiro and the Mariners through six innings with a 6-2 lead, a comfortable margin that got downright secure as the afternoon rolled toward evening.
Wells left after six innings, tagged for six earned runs. Mario Mendoza relieved him, and Sierra hit a two-run home run in the seventh, enjoying his trot around the bases at Yankee Stadium, where he once played.
Of course, Sierra once played nearly everywhere.
A young star when he broke in with Texas in 1986, much of Sierra’s career since then has seen him more as a shooting star – a hitter streaking across the major league skies from one team to another.
There have been stops in Oakland, New York, Cincinnati, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit and Texas again. And in the late ’90s, Sierra played in minor league spots like Atlantic City, Cancun and Oklahoma City.
A year ago, after batting .291 with 23 home runs and 67 RBI in 94 games with the Rangers, Sierra was named the comeback player of the year.
Except Texas didn’t ask him to come back.
A free agent at age 36, Sierra drew about as much attention as Jose Canseco – except in Seattle, where general manager Pat Gillick thought he’d fit in the Mariners’ clubhouse.
That’s been an understatement, so far.
A switch-hitter with power, Sierra has overcome the desire to hit every ball into hyperspace. With experience, he has found hitting hard – to all fields – more productive.
“It seems like everything Ruben hits is a line drive,” batting coach Gerald Perry said. “Even a lot of his outs have been hard line drives. He’s right on everything.”
A .270 career hitter who hasn’t batted over .300 in the majors since 1991 – the year Pineiro was 12 years old – Sierra is batting .371. There are 29 teams that wouldn’t mind his presence, and only one that has it.
“I came here to win, to be part of it,” Sierra said.
Late in the game, the Yankees scored four times, helped by a misplayed fly ball by Charles Gipson and another rough outing by Paul Abbott.
It didn’t change the outcome, or a 4-2 road trip in which the Mariners won their last four games.
“We had a nice weekend here,” Piniella said of Seattle’s sweep. “Now you know why we tried to get Ruben last year at the trading deadline.”
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