Mariners Pick Up The Pace Johnson, Rodriguez On Upswing As Seattle Eases By Toronto

A year ago, Randy Johnson was already hurting - and Alex Rodriguez was on the DL.

“Compared to last April, I’m off to a good start,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “But I have high expectations, I don’t look at what I’ve done. I look at what I could be doing. I’m a more important part of the team this year.”

And so, of course, is Johnson, a man who went 5-0 last year before limping off the mound for the last time and heading for a hospital and back surgery.

On Sunday, matched against a young, hard-throwing right-hander named Robert Person, Johnson went eight superb innings and Rodriguez drove in both runs as Seattle beat Toronto, 2-1.

Johnson has not lost in 23 starts since Aug. 1, 1995. He is two wins shy of the A.L. record for consecutive regular-season decisions won, set by Cleveland’s Johnny Allen (1936-37) and matched by Baltimore’s Dave McNally (1968-69). Carl Hubbell set the major league record of 24 with the New York Giants (1936-37).

“My last start, my arm was a little tender and I got by on nerves and magic tricks until the sixth inning,” Johnson said. “Today, I did my job until the eighth inning, and Norm Charlton did his in the ninth.”

Eight innings - 115 pitches - and not once did Johnson throw a pitch with more than a one-run lead. It was a classic pitching duel, Johnson’s heat vs. Person’s own dominant fastball-slider combination.

“That’s like a National League game,” manager Lou Piniella said. “Great pitching, two hours and 14 minutes and you go home. I’ll tell you what, that young pitcher for Toronto did a great job.”

Person, 27, may be young to Piniella, but not to Rodriguez, who’s just 21. And while a great arm impresses everyone in baseball, Rodriguez went to the plate against Person unwilling to give him even one pitch.

“I wanted to be aggressive, so I hit the first pitch he threw me,” Rodriguez said.

That was in the first inning, and Rodriguez turned it into a 411-foot home run. When he came up to bat the second time, the game was tied at 1 and Joey Cora had just legged out a two-out triple.

“He broke my bat with a slider, but I got enough of the pitch,” Rodriguez said.

Enough to drop it into center field for an RBI single and a 2-1 lead.

Johnson took it from there into the ninth before grudgingly handing the game to closer Charlton.

What was it like facing a healthy-again “Big Unit” in SkyDome? Consider the eighth-inning at-bat by Jacob Brumfield, who saw a 91-mph slider, an 80-mph changeup and then a 97-mph fastball in the process of striking out.

Every batter Johnson faced after the second inning represented at least the tying run, and twice he was in point-blank danger of losing his lead.

Two outs into the eighth inning, Joe Carter was safe with an infield single and Ed Sprague reached base on Russ Davis’ error.

Johnson got an infield pop fly from Juan Samuel and walked to the dugout.

“He’d thrown the most pitches he’d thrown all season and he wasn’t going back out there,” Piniella said. “But he wanted to. He said, ‘Let me face the first batter and we’ll go from there.’ “

Piniella didn’t buy into that.

Pitching woes

The day training camp opened in February, the Seattle Mariners had a projected five-man starting rotation of Johnson, Jeff Fassero, Jamie Moyer, Scott Sanders and Salomon Torres.

Twenty-four games into the season, Moyer hasn’t started a game, Sanders is in the bullpen and Torres is in Montreal.

“We’ve done a lot of juggling,” Piniella said, “in the rotation and in the bullpen. In our first 23 games, I used Bobby Ayala, Greg McCarthy and Norm Charlton 12 times each - and that’s too much.”

Three members of Seattle’s projected bullpen, Rafael Carmona, Bob Wells and Edwin Hurtado, either didn’t make the team or have had terrible Aprils for the Mariners.

Piniella is close to getting the staff in order, with the return of Moyer by Tuesday and of right-handed reliever Josias Manzanillo as early as next weekend.

“With three left-handers in our bullpen, we really need righthanded pitching in the bullpen to turn those hitters around when they come in,” Piniella said.

“Our offense hasn’t really clicked yet, but if we can cut down on the home runs and walks we give up, get our ERA down to 4.50 - not 5.72 like it is now - this team will start winning consistently,” Piniella said.

Notes

Rich Amaral made his second consecutive start in left field against a right-handed pitcher, while struggling Lee Tinsley started on the bench. Amaral stole his team-leading fifth base in as many attempts… . Seattle invades New York for a three-game series in Yankee Stadium beginning tonight at 4:35 p.m. PDT, although heavy rains are forecast. Probable starting pitchers: Jeff Fassero (4-0, 2.57) vs. Kenny Rogers (2-1, 5.13). Note of interest: Seattle’s 14 position players have a combined .329 lifetime average against Rogers.

Mariners 2, Blue Jays 1

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Cora 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .243 ARodrigz ss 4 1 2 2 0 0 .349 Griffey Jr cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .360 EMartinz dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 .303 Buhner rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .207 Sorrento 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .286 DaWilson c 3 0 1 0 0 0 .351 RDavis 3b 2 0 0 0 1 2 .325 Amaral lf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .429 Totals 32 2 6 2 1 8

Toronto AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

CGarcia 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .178 Brumfield cf 3 1 1 0 1 1 .304 Carter 1b 4 0 3 0 0 0 .282 Sprague 3b 4 0 0 1 0 1 .277 Samuel dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 .308 RPerez rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .160 O’Brien c 4 0 1 0 0 1 .200 SGreen lf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .267 AGonzalz ss 4 0 0 0 0 2 .282 Totals 35 1 7 1 1 9

Seattle 101 000 000 - 2

Toronto 100 000 000 - 1

E-RDavis (7). LOBSeattle 4, Toronto 8. 2B-Samuel (1). 3B-Cora (1), O’Brien (1). HR-ARodriguez (4) off Person. RBIsARodriguez 2 (19), Sprague (15). SB-Amaral (5). CS-DaWilson (1).

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 1 (Cora); Toronto 4 (Sprague, Samuel, RPerez, SGreen).

DP-Toronto 1 (O’Brien and CGarcia).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

RaJhnsn W, 3-0 8 6 1 1 1 9 115 2.73 Charlton S, 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 3.95

Toronto IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Person L, 0-1 7 6 2 2 1 7 113 2.77 Crabtree 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 7 4.50 Spoljaric 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 1 2.70 Timlin 1 0 0 0 0 1 10 3.60

T-2:14. A-32,160 (51,000).

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: UNBEATABLE Randy Johnson has not lost in 23 starts since Aug. 1, 1995. He has won 15 of those starts.

A.L. record: Johnny Allen, Indians (1936-37) 17 Dave McNally, Orioles (1968-69) 17 Major League record: Carl Hubbell, Giants (1936-37) 24