Anger Is Strong, Bullpen Is Weak

It was deja vu all over again when the Seattle Mariner bullpen blew a six-run lead in the opening-night loss to the Cleveland Indians, 10-9.

Last year, the Mariner bullpen helped keep the Angels in the American League West race, blowing 27 saves. Seattle lost seven games in which the Mariners scored eight or more runs, and gave up 101 runs in the ninth inning, the most in this century for anyone keeping score.

The late-season acquisitions of Heathcliff Slocumb and Mike Timlin didn’t help, merely costing the Mariners Jose Cruz Jr., the outstanding outfield prospect who went to Toronto in the Timlin deal and is starting in left field for the Blue Jays, and catching prospect Jason Varitek, who went to Boston in the Slocumb deal and made the Red Sox’s ’98 roster as a reserve.

Seattle Manager Lou Piniella snapped while hounded by reporters after this latest incineration.

“You people are unmerciful,” he said of the journalists. “Give these guys a chance. They’re going to pitch well. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.”

Piniella has to say it. He has no choice.

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The Texas Rangers, another West foe of the Angels, also opened with bullpen problems. They have a proven closer in John Wetteland, but getting to him is the issue, and the Rangers know they’ll have to get to him because their starting rotation averaged only 6.02 innings last year, when Wetteland had only 37 save chances, his fewest for a full season. The Rangers ranked last in the majors with a save percentage of .579, but of the 24 blown saves in 57 chances, 18 were by middle relievers.

Manager Johnny Oates had hoped that Xavier Hernandez and Danny Patterson would fill the seventh- and eighth-inning void, but both opened the season on the disabled list, recovering from shoulder surgery.

Now?

“Anybody could pitch at any time,” Oates said. “It’s more exciting this way as a manager, but it’s not the way I’d prefer to do it. I just have no choice. Until we settle in, we might try a few things we normally wouldn’t do.”

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The AL gossip mill has been churning, what with New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter dating pop singer Mariah Carey and Baltimore Oriole second baseman Roberto Alomar dating tennis player Mary Pierce, whom he met during two rehabilitation assignments to the Oriole training complex in Sarasota, Fla., last August.

Pierce and Alomar became so close that Alomar decided against playing winter ball for the first time in his career. Instead, he traveled with her during the off-season while he rehabilitated his shoulder after surgery and she played tournaments around the world. There were two trips to Australia, along with stops in Paris, Germany, New York and Chicago, and Pierce was a frequent spectator at Oriole exhibitions this spring.

“I was with Mary, and I could give her some company and cheer her up, when she needed it,” Alomar told Baltimore reporters this week, talking about his off-season itinerary.

“At the same time, I could do my strength conditioning. I wasn’t just going on vacation. I was going to be with her, but I was also on a mission to get my shoulder back on track and work out. That’s why I feel so good right now.”