Wells Gives Seattle Just What It Needs

L.A. Times Archives

July 21, 1997 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

The Seattle Mariners still need a closer if they’re going to hold off the Angels in the American League West. But maybe Bob Wells will do until the club makes a deal.

On Sunday, Wells got his first major league save to help Jamie Moyer win for the sixth time after a Seattle loss as the Mariners edged the Kansas City Royals, 5-4.

Wells has given up one earned run in 10 innings since the All-Star break. The rest of the Mariner bullpen has a 13.20 earned-run average. He struck out three in 2 1/3 innings of relief.

“I can’t remember the last time we had a three-up, three-down ninth inning,” Jay Buhner said.

Seattle won with six hits, including a home run by Paul Sorrento, a day after the Mariners wasted a 6-0 lead and lost, 9-6.

“After a game like [Saturday’s], when they scored nine runs the last two innings, that was just a great job with him coming in,” Buhner said. “We need somebody to step forward and Bobby stepped forward today.”

The Mariners are interested in making a deal for Ricky Bottalico of Philadelphia or Mike Timlin of Toronto to become their closer. They traded for Omar Olivares and Felipe Lira of Detroit Friday.

For now, Wells may be the choice to close for Seattle Manager Lou Piniella. Seattle’s bullpen has 22 saves in 36 chances and is two for five since the All-Star break.

“What the heck, give him the ball and see what he can do,” Buhner said. “They’ve given everybody else the ball.”

Said Piniella of Wells: “We’re going to use him. Everybody we’ve got here is in the mix.”

Wells, 30, said he’d like a chance to close out games for the Mariners.

“That’s something we’ve been struggling with the last couple of weeks,” he said. “If he [Piniella] wants to use me like that, that would be fine. Wherever he wants to use me, that’s good.”

Kansas City lost for the 17th time in 19 games. The Royals’ record under new manager Tony Muser is 2-9.

Chicago 10, Baltimore 2--At Baltimore, Cal Ripken was ejected for only the third time in his career and the Orioles lost for the 10th time in 13 games.

Frank Thomas went four for five with a two-run home run and four RBIs, and Jaime Navarro (8-8), who gave up nine hits, held Baltimore scoreless until Tony Tarasco homered in the ninth. Shawn Boskie (5-4) gave up seven runs and 10 hits in five innings.

Ripken was ejected by plate umpire Al Clark in the second for arguing a called third strike.

“In the end, having had time to think about what went on, I think Al Clark was exactly right,” said Ripken, who is in a five-for-37 skid. “It was all about frustration--frustration on my part for a lot of reasons that I probably vented on him in the wrong way. I wish I had been strong enough or had a better way to handle it.”

The Orioles third baseman still got credit for playing in his 2,411th consecutive game, but his focus Sunday was on the dozen or so before this one.

“When you go through a rough period or a tough period of time individually, you’re frustrated,” Ripken said. “When you go through a tough period of time as a team, you’re equally frustrated and maybe even more frustrated. To me, the set of circumstances came together all at once. What you saw today was an act of total frustration.”

Ripken’s previous ejections, both for arguing a called strike in the first inning, occurred in 1987 and 1989.

Clark said ejecting Ripken was simply part of his job.

“He was arguing balls and strikes. That’s not going to happen anymore. It makes no difference who it is,” Clark said. “As good as Cal is and as great as he is for our game, he certainly has some responsibility to our game and for the people who run the game. He is not immune to being ejected.”

By the time Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson arrived on the scene, Ripken was in the process of venting his frustration on the umpire.

“He covered everything. I was trying to get mad and trying not to laugh,” Johnson said.

Minnesota 1, Oakland 0--Brad Radke (13-5) pitched a five-hitter to win his ninth consecutive start at Oakland.

The Twins won their fourth consecutive game and completed a three-game sweep.

Radke, who hasn’t lost since June 2 at Texas, matched his career high with 10 strikeouts and walked none. It was Radke’s second career shutout, the first since Aug. 29, 1995, against Texas.

Minnesota got its run in the second when Scott Stahoviak doubled and scored on Matt Lawton’s grounder. Carlos Reyes (3-1), making his second start of the season following 23 relief appearances, gave up five hits in six innings.

Cleveland 7, Boston 2--Charles Nagy (10-6) gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings at Cleveland and Indian Manager Mike Hargrove got his 500th career victory.

The Indians stopped Boston’s season-high winning streak at four.

Nagy (10-6), who had given up 13 runs in eight innings in losing his previous two starts, recovered from a first-inning homer by John Valentin, who hit his third in two days.

Hargrove, 500-418 (.545) since becoming Cleveland’s manager in 1991, became the fourth active manager with 500 wins with his current club. The others are Bobby Cox of Atlanta, Cito Gaston of Toronto and Tom Kelly of Minnesota.

Tom Gordon (5-8), who has not won in five starts since June 22, gave up five runs and five hits in four innings and dropped to 0-4 with a 17.44 ERA in four starts at Jacobs Field.

Valentin homered in the first for the second consecutive day. Nagy settled down and gave up only one more run--an RBI single by Mike Benjamin in the seventh.

Nagy walked two, hit two and struck out three.

Texas 7, Detroit 6--Rusty Greer’s two-out home run in the 10th inning--his seventh game-winning home run since 1995--lifted the Rangers to a win at Arlington, Texas.

It was the 10th time in three seasons that Greer has driven in the game-winning run in Texas’ last at-bat. He’s done it three times this year with home runs. He has 14 home runs this season.

John Wetteland (5-2) struck out the side in the 10th, getting the last two batters looking for his first victory since June 13. A.J. Sager (2-3), the sixth Detroit pitcher, took the loss.

The Rangers ended a three-game losing streak and won for the second time in seven games.

Texas pitcher Matt Whiteside made his first big-league start after 201 relief appearances and gave up five runs on six hits in four innings. He struck out one and hit a batter.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

Player: Frank Thomas

Team: Chicago

Performance: 4 for 5, home run, double, 4 RBIs, 1 run

Team’s Result: Win

Player: Luis Alicea

Team: Angels

Performance: 3 for 4, home run, double, 3 RBIs, 2 runs

Team’s Result: Win

Player: Dave Nilsson