Mariner Batters Feast on Twins’ Rookies

The Seattle Mariners gave rookie pitchers Gary Rath and Rob Radlosky a rude greeting Tuesday night.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his major league-leading 18th homer and Seattle scored eight runs in the fourth inning off the two rookies to rout Minnesota, 15-5, at Minneapolis, ending the Twins’ four-game winning streak.

Radlosky, called up from triple-A Salt Lake City earlier in the day, was making his major league debut. Rath, called up from the same team last week, was making his first start.

“It’s much tougher facing pitchers you’ve never seen,” said Mariner right fielder Matt Mieske, who singled off Rath and Radlosky and homered off another rookie, Benj Sampson, in the ninth.

“Nobody on our team had anything on those guys,” Mieske said. “But there’s so much hitting experience on this team that we helped each other. Guys were coming back to the dugout telling everyone about their stuff.”

The reports were obviously accurate.

It took a while for the Mariners to get to Rath, who didn’t allow a hit until his 11th batter. But they wasted no such time in tagging Radlosky.

Radlosky, a right-handed reliever, entered the game in the fourth after Rath allowed the first five Mariners to reach base and Seattle had scored three runs to cut Minnesota’s lead to 4-3.

Radlosky, one of 12 rookies on the Twins’ 25-man roster, didn’t record an out until he’d given up an RBI single, a run-scoring double and a three-run homer.

He gave up an RBI single to Brian Hunter and a run-scoring double to Alex Rodriguez before Griffey hit a shot that curled just inside the left-field foul pole for an 8-4 Seattle lead.

“It’s Ken Griffey,” Radlosky said. “It was outside, low and away. That’s Ken Griffey for you. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I was nervous in my first triple-A start this year.”

A week ago, Rath and Radlosky were teammates in Salt Lake City. Now they’re in a different world.

“A week ago we were sitting there trying to get Las Vegas out,” Rath said. “Now we’re trying to get Ken Griffey out. I already made up my mind that he was going to hit the ball hard.”

Boston 5, New York 2--Rookie Brian Rose again beat the Yankees and Mike Stanley hit a three-run homer against his former team at New York.

Nomar Garciaparra also homered as the Red Sox won their fourth in a row.

Rose (2-0), whose only two starts this season have come against the Yankees, gave up three hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked two.

Rose got off to a shaky start when Chuck Knoblauch hit the 20th leadoff home run of his career. One out later, Paul O’Neill tripled, but Rose struck out Bernie Williams and got Tino Martinez on a grounder.

Tom Gordon pitched the ninth for his eighth save. He extended his major league record by converting his 51st straight save chance in the regular season.

Stanley’s home run, the 50th of his career at Yankee Stadium, broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth. He connected off Hideki Irabu (1-3) after Garciaparra singled and Troy O’Leary walked.

Irabu gave up four runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Cleveland 3, Chicago 1--Charles Nagy pitched seven strong innings to give Cleveland’s bullpen some rest and Richie Sexson homered at Cleveland.

Nagy (5-3) defeated both the White Sox and Jim Parque (5-4) for the second time in a week. Last Wednesday in Chicago, Nagy went eight innings in a 13-7 rout. He didn’t get nearly as much run support this time, but didn’t need it as his sinker had the White Sox overswinging and hitting 10 groundball outs.

Parque was much more effective than in his previous start against Cleveland when he gave up six runs and nine hits in a season-low 3 2/3 innings. This time the left-hander gave up eight hits in seven innings. The White Sox trailed only 2-1 in the seventh, but Sexson gave Nagy some cushion with his eighth homer, a towering 426-foot shot to center that landed in the picnic area.

Texas 7, Tampa Bay 2--Rookie pitchers Ryan Glynn and Mike Venafro gave up two runs over eight innings and Juan Gonzalez extended his season-high RBI streak to seven games at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Venafro (1-0) retired 11 of the 13 batters he faced over 3 2/3 scoreless innings to get his first major league win. He needed only two pitches to retire Wade Boggs and Paul Sorrento on groundouts after replacing Glynn with a runner on second and one out in the fifth inning.

Rusty Greer’s sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single by Gonzalez keyed a three-run third inning that put Texas ahead, 4-0.

Glynn pitched in and out of trouble during his first major league start, stranding seven baserunners through four innings. He was pulled only two outs away from qualifying for his first victory.

Toronto 5, Detroit 3--Dave Hollins hit a two-run homer and Roy Halladay kept up his mastery of the Tigers in the game at Detroit.

It was the first time the Blue Jays, who defeated Detroit, 12-6, on Monday night, have won consecutive games since April 21-22 against the Angels.

Halladay (4-2), who shut out the Tigers, 7-0, in his last start, gave up three runs--two earned--and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Billy Koch pitched the last two innings for his third save.

It was the 10th major league start for Halladay and third against Detroit. He has won all three, including a victory last Sept. 27 when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in his second big league start.