Mariners Bombard Finley in 8-1 Rout

Troy Percival was hoping for a sweep of a crucial four-game series against the Seattle Mariners--in fact, the ultra-competitive Angel closer expected nothing less--but after Friday night a split is looking mighty good to Percival and his teammates.

The Mariners rocked Chuck Finley for three home runs, including Jay Buhner’s tape-measure blast in the fourth inning, en route to an easy 8-1 victory before 32,247 in the Kingdome.

This was supposed to be a matchup of the top two American League West contenders, but so far it has been as one-sided as U.S. vs. Grenada, with the Mariners hitting six homers in two victories to open a 5 1/2-game lead, their biggest first-place cushion in franchise history.

And the Angels haven’t even faced Seattle ace Randy Johnson yet. That treat comes Sunday.

“We’ll bounce back [today], we’ll be here,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “But we can’t worry about Sunday until we win [today].”

Highlighting Friday’s victory was Buhner’s bomb, a 459-foot shot that landed in the third row of the second deck in left field, only the 11th time in Kingdome history a homer has reached the second deck in left. Buhner has done it twice, and Oakland’s Mark McGwire has done it three times.

Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez, fresh off the 15-day disabled list, had a two-run homer in the first and Mike Blowers added a three-run shot in the third, making another mess of a Finley start.

The left-hander played a game of Crazy Eights on Friday, giving up eight runs, all earned, on eight hits, before Collins pulled him for Shigetoshi Hasegawa after five innings.

Collins, who juggled his rotation so Jason Dickson and Finley could pitch the first two games here, said Finley will come back against Colorado on Tuesday on three day’s rest.

Finley is supposed to be the ace of the Angel staff, but he has been as inconsistent as most rookie starters, giving up five earned runs or more in six of his 14 starts. He is 3-6 with a 5.71 earned-run average and has given up a team-high 17 homers, including six in his past two starts.

“I usually pitch well here, but when you leave balls up in the strike zone against a good hitting team your luck is going to run out,” Finley said. “You’re not going to get balls hit right at guys. They’re going to be hit up the middle, in the gaps, out of the park . . . everywhere.”

Finley had a 15-6 record and 2.42 ERA against the Mariners going into the game, including an 18-3 victory over them in Anaheim Stadium on May 21.

But Seattle unleashed a vicious offensive assault, beginning with Rodriguez’s welcome-back, two-run homer in the first inning. Rodriguez, out since June 12 because of a bruised chest wall, lofted his 10th homer of the season into the right-field seats in his first at-bat after being activated.

Edgar Martinez doubled, Blowers walked, and Dan Wilson drilled a two-run double down the left-field line for a 4-0 Seattle lead.

Blowers, who has a .379 average (11 for 29) against Finley, followed Martinez’s single and Buhner’s walk with a three-run homer in the third, giving the Mariners a 7-0 lead.

Dave Hollins and Tim Salmon singled and Jim Leyritz hit a sacrifice fly for the Angels off Seattle starter Jeff Fassero (8-3) in the fourth, but Buhner’s homer, his 21st of the season, made it 8-1 in the bottom of the inning and increased Seattle’s major league-leading home run total to 120.

“I’ve never played here before,” Collins said, “but it’s obvious if you get the ball up, you’re going to get hurt.”

Fassero, acquired in a winter deal from the Montreal Expos, pitched seven solid innings, giving up one run on seven hits and striking out six before being relieved by Scott Sanders.

The left-hander also extended his string of innings without giving up a homer to a left-handed batter to 564 1/3. The last lefty to homer off Fassero was San Francisco’s Barry Bonds on June 30, 1994.

“They’re playing well now, and when you get a big early lead and you’re playing well, you seem invincible,” Collins said. “But there’s a ways to go.”

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* ON AN EVEN KEEL

Mariners do not feel the urgency the Angels seem to in their current series. C11