Sparks Floats Like Butterfly but Gets Stung in Sixth Inning

Seattle left-hander Randy Johnson stands 6 feet 10 and has 132 career victories, 2,185 strikeouts, one Cy Young Award and a 98-mph fastball.

Angel right-hander Steve Sparks stands 6 feet and has 16 career victories, 145 strikeouts, no Cy Youngs and a 65-mph knuckleball.

The tale of the tape did not exactly favor the Angels, but Sparks still went toe to toe with Johnson on Saturday, matching the Mariner ace’s shutout through five innings before cracking in the sixth.

Sparks struck out the side in the first and had seven strikeouts through four innings, but a sudden loss of control led to three sixth-inning walks and two Mariner runs in the Angels’ 2-0 loss.

Joey Cora singled with two out, Ken Griffey and Alex Rodriguez walked to load the bases, and Edgar Martinez singled to center for the game’s only runs. Sparks, who walked two more in the seventh before being relieved by Greg Cadaret, went 6 1/3 innings, giving up four hits.

He suffered his first loss, dropping to 3-1, but solidified his spot in the rotation. Allen Watson is expected to be activated today and sent to the bullpen, and Sparks will remain a starter.

“You can’t ask for any more than what Sparks gave us,” Manager Terry Collins said. “You know you’ve got to pitch the best game of your life, because you’re not going to have many chances against Johnson.”

Former Angel knuckleballer Dennis Springer had some of his best games in domed stadiums, and catcher Phil Nevin said Sparks’ knuckler was “absolutely wicked” Saturday.

“I damn near fell over trying to catch a couple of them,” Nevin said. “He threw a heck of a game. He got ahead of hitters all game except for that one inning.”

*

The Mariners dumped defensively deficient left fielder Glenallen Hill during the all-star break, and Russ Davis, in his first start in left Friday night, butchered a fly ball that might have cost Seattle a game.

But the Mariners have a keeper in Shane Monahan, one of seven Mariners to play left this season and one of 59 who have played there since 1989, the year Griffey became the team’s center fielder.

With runners on second and third and two out in the eighth inning Saturday, Monahan raced in to make a diving catch of Tim Salmon’s sinking liner.

“Griffey moved me in a couple of steps before that play, and as soon as he hit it, I knew I had to go for it,” Monahan said. “Even if I keep the ball in front of me, two runs are going to score. I play all-out all the time. I like doing stuff like that. Hopefully, it made up for my stupid base-running mistake.”

Monahan was on third with one out in the third when he tried to score on John Marzano’s grounder to second baseman Justin Baughman, who was playing in.

Monahan, whose grandfather, Bernie “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion, and great-grandfather, Howie Morenz, are in the NHL Hall of Fame, was thrown out by a wide margin, as Nevin withstood a collision at the plate.

“I figured halfway down the line I’d either stop and get in a rundown or try to run over the catcher,” Monahan said. “Coming from my background, I knew I’d better give him a good hit.”

TODAY

ANGELS’ JASON DICKSON (8-6, 6.13 ERA)

vs.

MARINERS’ BILL SWIFT (8-4, 4.83 ERA)

Kingdome, Seattle, 1:30 p.m.

TV--Channel 9. Radio--KRLA (1110), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Other than the eighth inning, the Angels had only one scoring chance Saturday, but a baserunning mistake by Jim Edmonds cost his team a run. Edmonds had walked to lead off the inning and stole second. Tim Salmon tapped a grounder to Randy Johnson’s right, but the Mariner pitcher snagged it and caught Edmonds off the bag, and Edmonds was tagged out in a rundown. Had he not wandered off the bag, Edmonds probably would have scored easily on Cecil Fielder’s ensuing single to right-center field. Instead, Fielder’s hit pushed Salmon to third, where he was stranded as Nevin and Damon Mashore struck out. . . . Mariner first baseman David Segui was scratched from Saturday’s game because of a sprained right wrist, suffered during his clubhouse fight with Johnson on Friday. He is listed as day to day. . . . Angel left-fielder Darin Erstad has a fan in Monahan, a second-round pick in the same draft (1995) Erstad was chosen first. “If a modern-day player wants to pattern himself after someone, it should be Erstad because of the way he plays,” the Mariner outfielder said. “I look up to him. I try to play the way he does. He’s a great hitter, he plays hard, keeps his mouth shut and goes about his business. That’s what I want to do.” . . . John Marzano, the Mariner catcher, when asked if there was any carry-over from Johnson’s fight Friday to his pitching performance Saturday: “If there was, I might have to fight him before every game.”