Mariners Fight Off Indians 5-3

Randy Johnson's ejection produced an unexpected result for the Seattle Mariners: a comeback against the other team's bullpen.

Johnson, Kenny Lofton and Sandy Alomar were ejected after Johnson threw inside to Lofton on consecutive pitches, but Seattle's bullpen came through for the first time this season in a 5-3 victory over Cleveland on Wednesday night.

Paul Spoljaric (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, and Bobby Ayala retired three straight in the ninth for the Mariners' first save in five tries. Seattle snapped a seven-game losing streak, beat the Indians for the first time in six tries and avoided the worst start in franchise history.

"It was nice to come from behind, take the lead and hold it," Mariners manager Lou Piniella said.

The defending AL West champions have started 4-10 for the fourth time, but avoided their first 3-11 start by beating up on another team's bullpen for a change. David Segui doubled in the go-ahead run off Paul Assenmacher (1-1) in the eighth.

Trouble started stirring again when Spoljaric issued a leadoff walk to Brian Giles in the ninth. But Ayala got Travis Fryman to fly to center, struck out pinch-hitter Jim Thome on three pitches and retired pinch-hitter David Justice on a groundout.

Piniella let Ayala, who is supposed to be the Seattle closer, face the left-handed pinch hitters with Tony Fossas warming up in the bullpen.

"I'm going to be counting on him there," said Piniella, who spent several hours talking one-on-one with his pitchers before the game.

Seattle relievers blew leads twice in Boston last weekend and in the first two games of this series. They came in 0-4 with an 8.84 ERA.

Johnson's brushbacks and an outburst by Piniella in the third appeared to wake them up.

"It will be very interesting to see what happens when we come back here," Seattle's Alex Rodriguez said.

With one out in the third, Johnson buzzed one right by Lofton's head. Lofton and the 6-foot-11 Johnson walked toward each other as the benches cleared, with Alomar the first to get between them.

Things calmed down until Piniella started screaming and going after Lofton.

"I was trying to tell the guy it was a breaking ball," Piniella said. "He was not throwing at him."

Lofton said, "I don't know why Piniella was doing hat he was doing. Watch the tapes. Every time I face him, he's throwing at my head."

With order finally restored, Johnson threw a second pitch in almost the same spot to set off another bench-clearer.

"Well, the second one was a fastball," Piniella said. "You'll have to ask Randy."

Alomar, wearing his catching gear, was right in the middle of the crowd and appeared to be trying to get to Piniella or plate umpire Ed Hickox.

"I said, `Wait a minute, aren't you going to throw (Johnson) out?'" Alomar said. "He said it was a slider and Kenny overreacted to it. I like Randy. But Kenny plays on my team."

Johnson was charged with one run and one hit in 2 1/3 innings, walking one and striking out five. The bullpen blew leads in both his no-decisions, including a two-hit, 15-strikeout performance in his last start against Boston.

"Randy probably woke up the team," Spoljaric said. "It boosts the club, it boosts the morale, it takes the heat off the bullpen."

Giles, who replaced Lofton in center field, hit a two-run homer off reliever Bob Wells in the sixth to make it 3-0 and spoil a rare strong outing by a Seattle reliever.

The Indians' first run came on an inside-the-park homer by David Bell, son of Detroit Tigers manager Buddy Bell, off Johnson in the second.

The Mariners cut it to 3-2 in the seventh on Jeff Huson's RBI groundout and Dan Wilson's RBI double off Eric Plunk.

Indians starter Bartolo Colon (2-0) was knocked out of the game when Joey Cora hit a liner off his pitching hand in the sixth. Colon allowed no runs and two hits in 5 1/3 innings. X-rays on his bruised right thumb were negative.

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