Mariners: No Help Is Needed

Pity the poor Seattle Mariners. They had to start their big four-game series against the Angels without baseball’s best player, Ken Griffey Jr., who has a slight hamstring strain. Pass Manager Lou Piniella a box of tissues, please . . . yeah, right.

“At this level, no one feels sorry for you,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “In 1995 we [Houston] had a five-game lead in September and Jeff Bagwell and Derek Bell got hurt. No one said, ‘Hey, we’ll loan you these guys to help you get through it.’ ”

The Mariners wouldn’t need such handouts, anyway. They showed Thursday night they’re much more than Griffey’s supporting cast, whipping the Angels, 6-3, before 31,248 in the Kingdome to open a 4 1/2-game lead in the American League West.

Seattle tagged Angel starter Jason Dickson for three home runs, increasing their major league-leading total to 117, and Rob Ducey served as Griffey’s stunt double in center field, with three doubles to back the superb pitching of Jamie Moyer (7-2).

“That shows you how good they are. When they don’t have Griffey and [shortstop Alex] Rodriguez, and Edgar [Martinez] goes 0 for 4 and they still do that,” Collins said. “They’re a good team, and we did not execute.”

Dickson (8-4) had given up one homer in his previous 40 innings, and only twice in his first 16 starts did he give up more than three earned runs.

But the Mariners, 18-5 in June, hit three homers in the first three innings: Joey Cora’s leadoff blast, Jose Cruz Jr.’s two-run, opposite-field shot in the second and Paul Sorrento’s second-deck solo bomb in the third.

Jim Leyritz countered with a two-run homer off Moyer in the fifth, cutting the lead to 4-2, but Cruz’s RBI single in the bottom of the fifth put the Mariners ahead, 5-2.

Angel right fielder Tim Salmon’s error led to an unearned run in the seventh, and the Angels got a run off reliever Bobby Ayala in the eighth on Gary DiSarcina’s double and Tony Phillips’ RBI single.

They threatened again in the ninth, but Norm Charlton retired Garret Anderson on a ground ball and Luis Alicea on a fly with runners on second and third for his 12th save.

Dickson, who gave up 11 hits Thursday night, is 0-2 in his last four starts and has given up 31 hits in his last three games.

“When you’re getting hammered you’re not going to win,” he said. “It’s something every pitcher goes through, and I’ve got to just hang in there. . . . The only thing that killed me tonight was my fastball was up. My off-speed stuff was great, but they hit every fastball.”

The Angels slipped a game in the standings, but they have overcome numerous injuries and have squeezed out just enough pitching and timely hitting to be where they are.

“We feel fortunate to be where we are, but overall, it’s a good group of players, and Terry [Collins] and his coaches have done a good job,” said General Manager Bill Bavasi, who joined the team in Seattle. “That’s why we’re where we are.”

But where are they going? The longer they remain in the race, the more the Angels will have to ponder a deal for a starting pitcher by the July 31 trading deadline.

“We’re always going to be looking for pitching,” Bavasi said. “But there’s not as much pitching available as there was in 1995 [when there was a well-defined group of seven pitchers entering free-agent years who were being shopped to contenders].

“That and the wild card race make it that much tougher to get a pitcher. You could be talking to someone about a pitcher, and one week later that team is back in the race.”