Cirillo ties -- but doesn’t break -- record

Jeff Tully

BURBANK -- Jeff Cirillo of the Seattle Mariners had a chance to do

something no other third baseman in the history of baseball had done.

Although Cirillo -- a former Providence High standout baseball player

-- didn’t break the record for consecutive errorless games at third

Saturday, he did tie the mark thenight before.

In a game against the Texas Rangers at SAFECO Field, Cirillo tied the

record held the past two years by John Wehner, a journeyman infielder. It

took Wehner, who played for the Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida

Marlins, more than eight years to reach the 99-game plateau, whereas

Cirillo did it in nine months.

“It’s quite a feat,” Cirillo said Friday in a story on the Mariners

Web site. “I have never experienced anything quite like this. Down the

road, I’ll probably realize how cool it is.”

In the series opener, Cirillo had two chances and made good on both of

them. After handling a grounder by Bill Haselman in the fourth inning,

Cirillo successfully fielded a foul ball by Carl Everett in the sixth.

Cirillo didn’t have much time to savor his accomplishment, however, as

he made his first error in 100 straight games Saturday against the

Rangers.

The streak-breaker came in the sixth inning on a ball hit by Haselman.

Cirillo appeared to react slowly to the grounder and attempted to

backhand the ball. He failed and the ball ricocheted off his glove and

dribbled into left field.

The capacity crowd booed the official scorer’s error decision.

“I was trying to get to 100 games,” Cirillo said. “It’s a play I

usually make, but it’s one of those calls that could have gone either

way. There was pressure on the official scorer. Wished it hadn’t come

down to a play like that. I’m upset I made the error.”

Another streak ended for Cirillo in the same game. Cirillo was three

away from breaking the consecutive-chances-without-an-error mark of 261

set from 1974-1975 by Don Money of the Philadelphia Phillies.

If it was any concession, Cirillo did draw a bases-loaded walk in the

11th inning to score the winning run in a 3-2 victory against Texas.

Rangers’ Manager Jerry Narron walked Ichiro Suzuki to load the bases

to get to Cirillo.

Cirillo already holds a major league record as the only player to have

at least 45 doubles in the American and National leagues. He had 46

doubles for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1996 and ’97 and 53 for the Colorado

Rockies in 2000.

Cirillo, a two-time all-star, has a career batting average of .310.

At Providence, he was a two-time CIF Southern Section Small Schools’

Player of the Year before staring as a pitcher at USC.