It’s a Quick Start for Griffey, Seattle

Ken Griffey Jr. hit homers in his first two at-bats, then marveled at the environment in the Kingdome on Tuesday night.

“We’ve got everything here,” Griffey said after the Mariners won their home opener with a 4-2 victory over the defending World Series champion New York Yankees.

“Pitching, offense, speed,” Griffey said. “Guys who do different things at the plate and in the field.”

Seattle, the trendy preseason pick to dethrone the Yankees as American League champion, got seven well-pitched innings from Jeff Fassero.

Griffey, who hit a franchise-record 49 home runs last season despite sitting out 20 games because of a broken bone in his right hand, homered in the first and third innings. Both shots came against loser David Cone.

Fassero, a left-hander who won 15 games with Montreal last season, gave up two runs and four hits in the first two innings before settling down to limit the Yankees to a single and a walk over the next five.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun this year,” Griffey said of Seattle’s revamped starting rotation. “If we win and I hit 10 [homers], I’ll be happy. If I hit 62 and we don’t win anything, all it is is a personal goal.”

After Bobby Ayala got Cecil Fielder on a grounder for the first out in the ninth inning, Norm Charlton came on and promptly gave up singles to Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill.

However, Charlton, who had an inconsistent ’96 season, got Darryl Strawberry to ground into an game-ending double play for the save.

Cone, out four months of the 1996 season after an aneurysm was removed from his right shoulder, gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings.

“Physically, I felt fine,” he said.