Mariners Hand KC Another Loss

Brett Tomko is doing his best to make the Seattle Mariners feel as good as possible about the departure of Ken Griffey Jr.

Tomko pitched six strong innings in his Seattle debut and Tom Lampkin homered and drove in three runs as the Mariners handed the Kansas City Royals their eighth consecutive defeat, 4-2 Saturday.

"A lot of bad things were said about me last year," said Tomko, who was 5-7 for the Reds last season after being 13-12 for them in 1998. "So it was nice to go out there today and say, 'I still belong.'"

Said manager Lou Piniella: "Brett was outstanding. He had a really good command of the strike zone and he threw hard."

Tomko (1-0), acquired in the trade that sent Griffey to Cincinnati on Feb. 10, was called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Friday. Starting in place of the disabled Jamie Moyer, he allowed Jermaine Dye's seventh homer of the season, but not much else.

Tomko limited the Royals to four hits, while walking none and striking out seven. He was taken out after giving up a single to Mike Sweeney to lead off the seventh.

The 27-year-old right-hander began the season in the Pacific Coast League after suffering from a sore left Achilles' tendon this spring.

"I didn't gdown to Tacoma and hang my head," Tomko said. "It's unfortunate that we lost such pitchers as Jamie and Freddy, but we've still got a lot of talent left."

Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched the ninth for his third save. He gave up a solo home run to Dave McCarty.

Lampkin, Seattle's backup catcher filling in for ailing DH Edgar Martinez, gave Tomko a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the second inning. It came after Raul Ibanez singled.

After Dye homered in the fourth, the Mariners scored two runs in the bottom of the inning. Jay Buhner and Lampkin had RBI doubles.

Lampkin's homer came on a 3-2 count after he fouled off six pitches from Jay Witasick (0-4).

"He was coming right at me," Lampkin said. "It was nice. I needed that."

Said Witasick: "It was a fastball. I left it up a little bit. I was challenging him with the fastball away. He got a good pass at it."

Witasick (0-4) went five innings, allowing four runs and six hits.

"He made some mistakes," Kansas City manager Tony Muser said. "Those doubles will kill you."

The Royals' Carlos Febles was 0-for-4, ending his 15-game hitting streak, longest in the majors this season.

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