Crazy Finish Fells Mariners

The starting rotation that has tried to ruin his stomach lining soothed manager Lou Piniella on Wednesday - it was the former members of that rotation that got his bile churning.

After rookie Matt Wagner had delivered a solid six-inning performance against Cleveland, starters-turned-relievers Bob Milacki and Salomon Torres couldn’t retire one hitter between them in trying to preserve a tie game.

In the ensuing wreckage, Wagner’s start was wasted and the Mariners suffered a perplexing 13-5 loss at Jacobs Field.

“I feel like the little Dutch boy,” Piniella said. “I put my finger in a hole in the dam and two more pop up.”

Whatever hope Wagner offered the rotation with a tenacious major league debut was overshadowed by the certainty that Seattle can move pitchers around but not hide them.

Three former starters - Milacki, Torres and Paul Menhart - faced a combined 12 batters over the last two innings and retired three while giving up seven runs.

“I’ll tell you what it made me wonder,” Piniella said. “It made me wonder if we need to send Bobby Ayala out on a rehab assignment. Maybe we should just keep him here …”

No. Ayala hasn’t pitched since late April, and Piniella and the Mariners will send him out this morning - barring managerial nightmares. But Ayala might be back sooner that expected, and he was expected back on Monday.

“We got a great start from the kid, we rallied to tie the game in the sixth inning and then we had a long, ugly inning,” Piniella said. “That was a six-pack inning.”

Milacki relieved Wagner to open the seventh after Seattle had rallied to tie the game at 3. He threw 12 pitches and 10 missed the strike zone.

That was more than Piniella could stand. He yanked Milacki after back-to-back walks and brought in Torres to face Carlos Baerga, who had a 2-1 count in his favor.

On Torres’ first pitch, Baerga singled to load the bases for Albert Belle.

Torres walked Belle, forcing in the go-ahead run and leaving the bases loaded with no one out. Piniella trudged to the mound again and called for Lee Guetterman.

Guetterman did his job, retiring two left-handed hitters - Jim Thome and Jeremy Burnitz - without giving up a run. With right-handed hitting Manny Ramirez due up, Piniella patted Guetterman on the butt and called for reliever Mike Jackson.

At that point the Indians led 4-3.

Jackson walked Ramirez, hit Sandy Alomar with a pitch and gave up singles to Omar Vizquel and Kenny Lofton before getting that elusive third out, and by the time he headed for the dugout the score was 10-3.

“Oh, hell, let’s just talk about Wagner,” Piniella said. “He pitched a fine game. He gave us all we could have wanted. He had poise, he had good stuff, he had mound presence - now if we could just find two or three more like him.”

For Wagner, just getting to the big leagues was “a dream come true.”

What followed, at least for six innings, merely made the dream better.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but the Pacific Coast League isn’t a pitcher’s league, so I thought ‘Why change what’s worked?”’ Wagner said. “Getting through the first inning eased things a bit.”

Wagner wasn’t perfect, but the Indians had to work for their three runs. When they had the chance to get more, he denied them. Still, there were surprises for him.

“I was surprised the way left-handed hitters got the barrel of the bat on outside fastballs and pulled them,” Wagner admitted.

Albert Belle’s opposite-field home run?

“I’ve never seen a ball muscled like that one was,” he said.

Matched against Indians ace Charles Nagy, Wagner came out even - more than can be said of the Seattle bullpen.