Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - What a Game: Sweet Lou's M's Debut (4/6/1993)

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Today, D.C. talks about Lou Piniella's first game as Mariners manager. This game was against the previous year's World Series champions, who would go on to successfully defend their title. The Mariners started their Randy Johnson, an ace who was just coming into his own. Opposing him was Jack Morris, an ace who was on the back side of his career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, J.M. And to those of you out there in podcast, Land, thank you for joining us here on Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, brought to you by Built Bar. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on the Locked-on Podcast Network or T-L-O-P-N or, of course, plopin. Today we're going to recap Lou Pinella's first game as Mariners manager at the beginning of the 1993 season. In the early 90s, the Mariners had some young up-and-coming pieces who were thought of as future contributors, but most of them were still unproven.

The pitching staff was a mess, which would become a familiar story throughout the remainder of the 90s. Chris Basio was signed as a free agent prior to the 93 season to add a proven veteran arm to the mix. Randy Johnson was still very wild and not yet the polished pitcher we think of him as now. After a very bad 92 season, the Mariners fired manager Bill Plummer after his only season at the helm. For the 93 season, the M's got a new look, a new low. new colors, new uniforms, and a new manager. Lou Pinella was hired to write the ship after three seasons in Cincinnati. The Reds had finished 1989 in fifth place,

and Pinella took this team from mediocrity to a 1990 World Series sweep over the heavily favored Oakland Athletics. We recapped that World Series about a month ago or so. And this Reds team was not necessarily loaded, so Pinella was the perfect choice to try to make something of the raw mariners. His first regular season test was April 6th, 1993, at the Kingdom against the Toronto Blue Jays, an absolutely loaded team who had won the World Series the year before, and who would win the whole enchilada once again in 93. Starting for the Blue Jays was Jack Morris,

a future Hall of Famer who had also been a member of the 1984 World Champion Tigers and 1991 World Champion Twins. On the mound for the M's, the Big unit, Randy Johnson. And because Randy Johnson was on the mound, the Blue Jays lineup looked a little different. Left-handed hitting John Olerud, who would go on to win the 1993 American League batting crown, was on the bench. At first base for the Jays was Domingo Martinez. Leading off for the Blue Jays against the big unit was center fielder Devon White, who began the 1993 season with a groundout. Next up was future Hall of Famer Roberto Alamar, and he'd line a single to right center field. Following Alamar was another future Hall of Famer, Paul Molitor, who was

signed as a free agent in the previous offseason. He grounded out sending Alamar along the second base. The Jay's cleanup hitter was Joe Carter, one of my all-time favorite players, whom we've discussed on this program several times before. He sent a triple out to right field, scoring Alamar for the first Blue Jay's run of 1993. Darren Jackson fanned to end the inning, and the unit returned to the bench having given up one run. Jack Morris took the hill for the Blue Jays. The veteran right-hander's first adversary was Little O, Omar Vesgel, who worked the count full, then walked.

Mike Felder was next, and he hit a single. This Kell moved on to second base. The Mariners number three hitter was a familiar face. Ken Griffey, Jr. This being opening day and junior being junior, I'm sure you can guess what happened. Uh-huh, home run. Visckel and Fiskel and Fiskel.

Feltar scored ahead of him and three batters into the game, the Mariners had erased the Toronto lead and taken a lead of their own, three to one. Tino Martinez was the next hitter, and he would line out to the shortstop. Pete O'Brien, the M's DH this day, was next, and he singled out to center field. Jay Buehner fanned, Mike Blowers singled, and Dave Valley grounded out for out number three, but the Ms had gotten on the board in a major way and had a three-one lead, after one inning of play. Domingo Martinez led off the top of the second against Johnson with a single to right field. Two future mariners were due up next, the first of whom was Ed Sprague. The unit got Sprague to wave at strike three, then got Pat Borders to ground in to a 463 double play to end the inning.

Rich Amarol led off the bottom of the second with a double to left center field. Omar Viscal sacrificed him along to third, bringing up Mike Felder, a man known as Tiny, for his diminutive stature. Tiny did what he had to do, and then some. He lined a double down the right field line, easily scoring Amarol and putting himself in scoring position for the meat of the order. But Junior struck out and Tino flew out, and Jack Morris had wriggled off the hook, allowing only one run. It could have been much worse for Toronto, but as it was, the score stood at four to one Mariners. Dick Schofield and Devon White both struck out to open the top of the third. Robbie Alamar walked, but tried to take second on the first pitch to the next hitter.

Johnson did not deliver to the plate, instead throwing on to first. First baseman Tino threw on to shortstop Omar Vigel to get Alamar, and any thoughts of a Toronto threat were very quickly extinguished. The Mariners would pile on more in the bottom of the frame. Mike Blowers drew a two-out walk. Dave Valley singled sending Blowers to second. Then Rich Amarol hit a line drive double up the middle to score both runners. Six one was the score at this point. Omar Viscale was next, but he flew out to end the

inning. More damage, however, and the M's were pulling away early, 6-1 after three. Meanwhile, Randy Johnson was being Randy Johnson. Molliter struck out to open the top of the fourth. Mali did not strike out often. He was an outstanding contact hitter. Next was Joe Carter, a great RBI man and power threat, but as good a candidate to strike out as any. However, he hit a groundball single up the middle, and he was pinched run for at this point. And honestly, gang, without having seen this game, I'm guessing it was a minor injury of some sort. He was also not in the starting lineup the next day, but was in the Blue Jay's third game. Darnel Coles took Carter's place at first base and would also remain in the game to play left field in Carter's stead.

He would be advanced to second by the next hitter, Darren Jackson, who hit a single of his own. Randy would get the next two men to strike out swinging, however, so he winds up striking out the side and stranding Coles and Jackson. The bottom of the fourth is the first inning in which the Mariners did not score. Despite drawing two walks, the score stood at 6 to 1. Despite a lead-off double from Pat Borders and a two-out single from Robbie Alamar, Randy Johnson kept Toronto from scoring in the fifth. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Jack Morris hit Dave Valley with a 1-1 pitch. Rich Amarol singled to short right field, sending Val to third.

Little O was next, and he'd also hit a single. This one scoring Valley and sending Amarol to third. Seven-one Mariners now. Blue Jays manager Cito Gasson had seen quite enough of Morris. Ken Daly came in from the pen to take Morris's place, which prompted Lou Pinella to pinch hit for Mike Felder. Off the bench came Lee Tinsley, making his Major League debut. Tinsley drew a walk to load up the bases.

the Mariners looked primed to break the game wide open, already up six runs. But Junior and Tino would both strike out to end the inning. After walking Darnell Coles to begin the top of the sixth, Randy Johnson struck out the next three men in succession for a relatively easy half-inning. Ken Daly walked the first two men he faced in the bottom of the sixth, and he was pulled. Mark Eichorn came in from the pen to replace him and quickly got Mike Blowers to ground in,

it was 6-4-3 double play. Dave Valley was next and he also grounded out. Icorn came in and did his job, keeping the score at 7 to 1. Randy Johnson, meanwhile, had settled into a groove. He shut Toronto down in short order in the top of the 7th, needing only 7 pitches to do so. After the 7th inning stretch, Danny Cox entered the game as the new Blue Jays pitcher, and he proceeded to set the Mariners down in short order, capping it off with a strikeout of Lea. Tinsley, score held at 7-1. Not to be outdone, the unit struck out the first two men in the top of the 8th. Future Hall of Famers Alamar and Molotr, then got Darnell Coles to fly out for another breeze of an inning. Mike Timlin, future mariner Mike Timlin, was brought in from the Toronto

bullpen to begin the 8th. Junior grounded out to begin things, but then Tino sent a home runout to right center field, patting the Mariners' lead, which was now 8 to 1. Pete O'Brien, ground, it out, then Jay Buehner fanned. The Blue Jays had three outs remaining to tie the game, needing a ton of runs to get back in it. Randy Johnson's day was done, however, and coming in to try to wrap up the game was Rich Delusha. Darren Jackson popped the first pitch Delusha offered behind the plate,

which Dave Valley caught for out number one. Domingo Martinez was next, and he struck out swinging. Down eight runs, it was down to Ed Sprague, With a one-two count, Sprague popped one up behind second base. Viscale snared it for the final out-of-the-ball game, and the Mariners had given Lou Pinella his first win as M's manager. We'll get to the pitching lines and talk about some of the other players involved in this game on the other side of some important commercial words,

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Builtbar.com promo code locked on, that is all one word, for 20% off your order. Built bar, it's the right thing to do. Now back to Locked on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. Ladies and gentlemen, we're covering everything you need to know about the Mariners here on this show, as well as baseball history, obviously during the offseason. Well, there is no Mariners news.

But what about the rest of sports? I don't follow it in the other major sports, so the Locked-on podcast network has you covered there as well with Locked On Today. It's hosted by Peter Bukowski, and it's all the sports news you need every morning in under 20 minutes, no less. Although if you want to know about bowling and curling, I'm still the go-to guy here on the Lockdown Network, though I don't cover them in depth on this program. Anyway, I encourage you to subscribe to Lockdown today, today,

wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to talking about the Mariners game, April 6th, 1993. Lou Pinellas' first game as Mariners skipper. It was an 8-1-victory by the Mariners. Starting pitcher that day for the Mariners Randy Johnson was as dominant as ever. A very typical Randy Johnson-like performance. eight innings, seven scattered hits, one run, which came in the first inning, two walks and get this gang, 14 strikeouts.

I don't know what I can say about Randy Johnson that I haven't said on this program already or that hasn't been said by other people a lot more eloquently than I ever could. So we'll move on to Rich Delusha, the other Mariners pitcher this game. He pitched the final inning, struck out one and didn't give up anything. This was his final season as a Mariners. He had pitched with the M's in 1990 through 1993. He was originally a starting pitcher, but did not have a lot of success. So he was moved to the bullpen in the middle of the 1992 season,

and from there on out had much more success coming out of the bullpen as he did as a starting pitcher. This year for the Mariners, he posted a 4-6-4 earn run average and a whip of 1.617. He struck out 10.1 per nine innings. I don't remember him as much of a strikeout pitcher, but he obviously struck out a ton of hitters this year in his 42 and two-thirds in. He pitched in the majors through 1999, his age 34 season, six games for the Cleveland Indians. Starting pitcher for the Blue Jays this day was Jack Morris, who is a Hall of Famer, but he was towards the end of his career and had a very poor season.

27 games for the Blue Jays in 1993, all of them were starts, spent some time on the disabled list, had an ERA of 619. The year before, he had led the American League in wins, with 21. and had a 404 earned run average. 92 was his age 37 season and really his last good season as a Major League Baseball player. He pitched one final season for Cleveland in 1994, where he also did not fare very well, but better than he did in 1993. Morris won 254 ball games in his Major League career,

although his ERA of 390 is the highest among Hall of Fame starting pitchers. He has a no-hitter in 1984, which I believe was his first started of 1984, won four World Series championships, 84 with the Tigers, 91 with the twins, and the 92 and 93, both with the Blue Jays, although again 1993 was not his finest season. He was a workhorse pitching 293 in two-thirds innings to lead the American League in 1983. Morris was one of the first to master the split-fingered fastball, which he used masterfully, although this did also cause him to throw more wild pitches than most. In fact, he led the American League in wild pitches six times. But he also led the American League in strikeouts in 1983 with 232,

which equates to 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings, which today seems very pedestrian. But back in the day, that was very good. He was a three-time All-Star, started the 1991 game, and was also the 1991 World Series MVP. He was involved in my favorite baseball game ever. Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, that fantastic pitchers duel against John Smoltz. He spent the maximum of 15 years on the Hall of Fame ballot, but never got the required 75% for enshrinement. However, he was voted in by the Veterans Committee in 2018.

Every single Mariners batter in this game reached base. even Mike Felder and Lee Tinsley, who both occupied the number two spot in the lineup at different times. Feldor went two for three, and Tinsley went 0 for one with a walk. The only other Mariners player not to get a hit was Jay Buneer, but he also drew a walk. He was 0 for four in this game with two strikeouts, and the RBIs were kind of spread around as well. Junior had that three-run home run. Tino Martinez had a solo home run. Mike Feldor drove in a run, as did Omar Visckel, and Rich Amor,

drove in two runs. Let's talk about Rich Amarrow for a little bit. We haven't really discussed him much on this program, even though he is one of my favorite Mariners. Our announcer, Joey Martin and I kind of have an inside joke where we refer to Rich Amorl as the greatest player ever. He was very versatile. Came up as a middle infielder,

but couldn't feel his position very well. He played both shortstop and second base in the minors, mostly second base when he got to the major leagues. In 1993, he kind of split time at second base. Between him and Brett Boone, hit 290 on base of 348 and a 367 slugging average. However, Lou Panella grew frustrated with his defense, and he began to learn to play the outfield

while Luis Soho saw a lot of action at second base in 1994. Amaral proved to be a very good outfielder and played all three outfield positions in 1996 without committing an error. His defense at second base had also improved, and he spent the majority of that year in a platoon at second base with Joey Cora. He was originally drafted by the Cubs in the second round in 1983,

but didn't reach the majors until 1991 with the Mariners at the age of 29. His rookie status was still intact in 93, and he placed fifth in the rookie of the year voting at age 31. His best season, though, was 1996. In 118 games, he slashed 292, 392-356. A good contact hitter, skilled bunter, and outstanding base runner. He played with the M's through 1998, mostly as a utility player who got a few starts a week, mostly in left field and second base.

He closed out his career in Baltimore in 1999 and 2000. Let's talk about some of these Blue Jays, though. This was a very, very good Blue Jays team. World Champions in 92, World Champions this year in 1993 as well. Devon White was one of the previous. your defensive center fielders of his day. It was Kenny Lofton, it was Kenney Griffey Jr., and it was Devon White. If a ball was hit in the right center field or left center field gap and Devo couldn't get it,

it couldn't be caught. He was one of the rangiest center fielders of his day. And there is a Mariner who played semi-recently who reminded me of Devon White, and that's Franklin Gutierrez. They both had various similar styles while playing center field because they didn't look as if they were running very hard. But they had such long strides, and they could cover a lot of ground

in such a short period of time, and they were so smooth when playing center field. There are some highlights of Devon White, robbing some people of some home runs. In the class of Junior or Kenny Lofton. He was definitely in a defensive class with Lofton and Jr. And his seven gold gloves are a testament to that.

He also played for the 1997 Marlins who won the World Series. also in the starting lineup, Roberto Alamar and Paul Molyder, both Future Hall of Famers, Joe Carter, borderline Hall of Famer, and there are also two future mariners in the starting lineup this day, in addition to John Olerud, who was on the bench. Ed Sprague was a starting third baseman for the Blue Jays this day. Ed Sprague did rise to the ranks as a third baseman, but also caught, and he was mostly a catcher for the 1992 Blue Jays, a reserved catcher, but he was moved to third base permanently

in 1993 after their starting third base when Kelly Gruber was allowed to leave as a free agent following a very poor season. This year he hit 260 on base of 310, slugging of 386. He mostly hit seventh in the lineup and still managed to drive in 73 runs. This was a very good offensive team. He made the 1999 National League All-Star team as a Pittsburgh Pirate, a year he hit 267 and hit 22 home runs. He played for the mayors briefly, in 2001, 45 games, 298 batting average, and a slugging percentage of 436 to close out his Major League career. He spent one more minor league season, I believe, in the Rangers organization, before calling it a day.

Around the time he got to Pittsburgh, he adopted a very unorthodox batting stance, which he still had when he got to the Mariners. He would be at the plate very, very relaxed, hold his hands towards his belt, and the bat would just kind of almost be resting in his hands parallel to the ground. And when the pitch was being delivered, he got himself very quickly ready in hitting position and then offered it the ball. Kind of similar to what Mickey Teddleton had adopted towards the end of his career. Pat Borders also was a future mariner,

and he holds a major league record which he shares with Jamie Moyer. The two of them combined for the oldest combined battery ever in 2005. while he and Moyer were both 42 years old. They did this in Borders' final Major League ball game on July 27, 2005. His first season in the Mariners organization was 2001, where he was kind of an emergency catcher who spent most of the year at AAA. He continued in this role through 2003, and he also appeared for the 2004 Mariners.

He split that season between the Mariners and the twins organizations, and then played 39 games in 2004. to close out his Major League career. Borders was known as a defensive specialist with a pretty good throwing arm, although he was kind of relegated to a reserve role by the time he got to the Cleveland Indians in the mid-90s. I've always had a lot of respect for Borders, given his wealth of experience and willingness to accept an emergency catcher role even in his 40s. That shows me a selfless attitude and love of the game. And anyone who has been around the game as long as he has just commands resorts.

respect. For these reasons, I always felt as if Pat Borders would have made a very good manager if that is something he wanted to pursue. Pitching the final inning for the Blue Jays this day was Mike Timlin, another future mariner, who had come over from the Blue Jays to the Mariners at the trading deadline in 1997. He actually pitched pretty effectively as a mariner, 96 games worth, 105 innings, and a 317 earn run average in a season and a half. I don't remember him pitching that well, but that's probably because the trade in which he was involved was such a bust. It cost

the Mariners Jose Cruz Jr., the 1996 minor league player of the year. And also coming over was Paul Spalgerick, who was just a disaster on the mound. Although Paul Spall Jarrick kind of holds a special place in my heart for a reason that I'll explain later. He tossed me a ball at batting practice. I just

explained it, so I did not explain it later. Anyways, Timlin was also a key member of those great Red Sox teams of the early 2000 aughts. He led the American League in appearances in 2005. His age 39 season, where he also had a 224 earned run average. He played in the majors through 2008. That was his age 42 season.

Overall, he pitched 18 years in the big leagues. 1,058 games, 363 earned run average, and 141 saves. He earned the save of the clinching game of the 1992 World Series. That will just about do it for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to open up the fan mailbag on the next one. Joining me will be Barney Rubble, Tukan Sam, and a tube of denture adhesive. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program. Look for us on any podcasting app that may happen to spring into your brainhead.

Thank you for listening to today's episode, ladies and gentlemen. you tuning in whether this is your first episode or whether you're a long-time listener. I hope you'll join us for the next one, gang. In the meantime, have a great day. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.