Indians catcher Carlos Santana wipes his forehead Wednesday as Seattle’s Dustin Ackley crosses the plate with another Mariners’ run in the fifth inning of Cleveland’s 9-2 loss at Progressive Field. (AP photo).

CLEVELAND — The Seattle Mariners are the lowest-scoring and worst-hitting ballclub in the American League.

Against the Indians, though, they look like the most explosive team on the planet.

Journeyman slugger Wily Mo Pena knocked in four runs and rookie third baseman Kyle Seager had three doubles Wednesday afternoon, powering the Mariners to a 9-2 victory over the free-falling Tribe.

The loss knocked Cleveland (63-64) below .500 for the first time since April 3, leaving the Indians six games behind Detroit in the AL Central Division with 35 games to play.

“For some reason, Seattle just beat us up and caught us at the wrong time,” said Indians manager Manny Acta, whose club has lost six of its last seven games. “Those guys hit us around pretty good the whole series.
“Really, this last week, we just didn’t pitch well, and that’s been our strength the whole season. This day off comes at a good time for us.”

Staff ace Josh Tomlin was the latest Tribe pitcher to be knocked around by Seattle (56-73), which banged out 51 hits and scored 29 runs in winning three times in the four-game set.

Tomlin (12-7, 4.25 ERA) only lasted 4 2/3 innings in the oven-like confines of Progressive Field, allowing six runs on 11 hits while striking out six. That performance also ended his MLB all-time record streak of 37 straight appearances of at least five innings to begin a career.

“I wasn’t thinking about that streak at all when I was out there, but I will now — and it doesn’t feel good,” said Tomlin, who failed in his bid to break the MLB mark of 37 consecutive, five-plus inning starts to open a career held by John Farrell.

“You don’t ever want to leave those guys (in the bullpen) out to dry, which is my worst fear. I just couldn’t put anyone away today, and every time I was missing, I was missing over the plate.”

Pena and Seager, of all people, did much of the damage from the 7-8 spots in the Mariners’ batting order. They reached base in all 10 of their plate appearances and collected five runs and five RBIs.

Designated hitter Pena, who was released by Arizona in July, went 3-for-3 with four RBIs, two runs, one walk, and a hit by pitch. He ripped a two-run homer off Tomlin in the fourth and a two-run double off the right-hander one inning later.

Seager — playing in just his 23rd MLB game — was 4-for-4 with three runs, one RBI, and one walk. All three of his doubles came in the first five innings as Seattle jumped out to a 6-2 lead and disposed of Tomlin.

“We couldn’t get him out. He just caught fire and killed us,” Acta said of Seager, who hit .769 (10-for-13) in the series. “It was the bottom of the order that really hurt Josh today with him and Pena.”

Mariners righty Felix Hernandez (12-11, 3.37 ERA) earned the victory with six innings of two-run ball, scattering seven hits while striking out 10.

Jamey Wright and Josh Lueke added six whiffs in relief, raising Cleveland’s team strikeout total to a season-high tying 16.

“We’ve been leading the league in that category for two years in a row, and we’re still striking out way too much,” Acta said. “It’s unacceptable when you don’t have a team loaded with sluggers, and it’s something we’ll address in the offseason and next spring.”

Left fielder Shelley Duncan led the Indians with three hits, while first baseman Matt LaPorta and shortstop Jason Donald had two apiece. Duncan and Jack Hannahan each had one RBI, coming in the third and fourth inning, respectively.

Seattle committed four errors in the game, giving it eight in the series, but the Tribe was unable to turn any of them into runs.

Cleveland reliever Rafael Perez also contributed to the misery by giving up the Mariners’ final three runs. He walked three and gave up two hits in his lone inning, the seventh.
Adding injury to insult, Cleveland outfielder Shin-Soo Choo experienced “left trunk soreness” during batting practice and was a last-minute scratch. He is listed as day-to-day.
Additionally, Indians catcher Carlos Santana took a foul ball off his head during Brendan Ryan’s at-bat in the ninth. He exited the game with neck pain.

“We’re not the only team that goes through injuries, so we’ve got to keep playing through it,” Tomlin said. “You saw what happened to us (being swept by Detroit and overpowered by Seattle in a six-day span). That could happen to anybody.

“This week will not make or break us, hopefully.”

Contact Brian Dulik at brisports@hotmail.com.

WELLINGTON — Ryan Mayse didn’t have the longest pull in Wednesday night’s Lorain County Fair truck pull.

But he might have had the loudest applause when it was announced that Mayse, an Army specialist home on leave from Afghanistan, was dedicating his run to two fellow servicemen who won’t be coming home.

Mayse, 22, said Staff Sgt. Ampers and Sgt. McDonald were close to his heart while he competed even though he didn’t remember their first names — he rarely used them, he explained.

McDonald was in a truck that was blown up by an improved explosive device, and Ampers was the victim of a rocket-propelled grenade when he tried to assist other soldiers who’d gotten into a firefight, Mayse said.

“It doesn’t matter who it is, you’re never ready to lose anybody over there,” Mayse said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your worst enemy or your best friend. You don’t wish that on anyone.”

Mayse, who is from central Ohio, is headed back to Afghanistan — he can’t say where specifically — on Sept. 3. But for now he’s enjoying his time home. He’s headed to another diesel event in Indiana Thursday.

“I planned my leave around this,” he said of county fair season.

While other guys were taking leave in May or June, Mayse said, “I’ll wait till August,” he said.

His fellow soldiers responded, “You’re going to go home and break the truck, aren’t you?” he said.

Mayse said he’s been watching truck and tractor pulls since he was a little kid and got involved himself following his first tour in Afghanistan a couple years ago because he finally had the money to buy his first truck.

“I don’t have a whole lot of chance to do it, so when I do, I jump all over it,” he said.

Mayse’s pull of 230.26 feet, near the bottom of the 2.6 diesel truck class, didn’t disappoint him.

“Whatever you can do is whatever you can do,” he said, admitting that he’s always nervous and his skin crawls when he’s about to pull.

He’s eager to get his truck competitive with others in his class, which he says he’ll accomplish by sinking all of his deployment money into it.

For him, it’s a way to get away from the reality he’ll be facing in under 10 days.

“To come home and do this stuff and not have to care or worry about anything — that’s the best feeling,” he said.

ELYRIA —Tim Quinn’s hopes that the Ohio Supreme Court would put him back on the November ballot as an independent candidate for Elyria mayor were dashed Wednesday when the state’s highest court tossed his legal challenge to the Lorain County Board of Election’s decision to remove him from the ballot.

The Supreme Court ruling didn’t include an explanation of why it dismissed Quinn’s challenge.

The elections board voted to kick Quinn off the ballot after discovering that he had voted in the May Democratic primary one day after he filed to run for mayor as an independent. State elections rules and prior court cases have determined that independent candidates can’t engage in partisan political activity after declaring their independence from a political party, according to county elections officials.

Assistant County Prosecutor Gerald Innes said the decision upholds what the elections board said when it removed Quinn from the mayoral race.

“We think it’s the correct decision,” he said.

Quinn, however, argued that he has run as an independent twice before – he was defeated in bids for mayor in 2007 and City Council in 2009 – and both times he voted in the Democratic primary without any penalty. The elections board has said that the rule wasn’t in place in 2007 when Quinn was put on the ballot and the issue wasn’t challenged in 2009.

Quinn has said that when he cast his ballot in May, he didn’t vote in the race between Elyria Mayor Bill Grace and Elyria school board member Holly Brinda, who defeated the three-term incumbent. Republican Ray Noble won his party’s primary.

His attorney, Gerald Phillips, has also argued that the elections board violated his client’s constitutional rights to run as a candidate and to cast a ballot.
Phillips said without the state’s highest court explaining its reasoning he isn’t certain what to make of the ruling.

“I don’t have the faintest idea what was the rationale for that decision,” Phillips said.

Phillips said that Quinn —who didn’t return a call seeking comment — has other legal avenues, including lawsuits in state or federal courts, that he could pursue to get his name back on the ballot. He said his client has not yet made a decision about what to do.

The Supreme Court, Phillips said, appears to have missed an opportunity to clarify the rules governing how independent candidates can behave.

“Everybody’s in the dark as much as they were before,” he said.

Brinda said she wasn’t surprised the Supreme Court rejected Quinn’s efforts to return to the ballot.

“Elections laws are complex and designed to protect the interests of the system and while Mr. Quinn may be disappointed that he can’t contribute as a mayoral candidate there are other ways to contribute,” she said.

Noble said he would have liked to see Quinn remain in the race, but there’s also a possibility that Quinn’s continued exile from the November contest will benefit him.
“I hope that the people who were supporting him will come over and support me,” he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — The Lorain County commissioners on Wednesday approved a long-expected deal that will see dispatchers for county Sheriff Phil Stammitti relocated to the county’s 911 Dispatch Center, a move that also will bring three laid-off deputies back to work.

Stammitti said shedding the cost of paying eight dispatchers and a supervisor will save about $650,000 annually, although the savings to his budget will be closer to $400,000 because of the three deputies being rehired.

The current sheriff’s dispatchers will be laid off in the coming weeks, but will be able to apply for jobs at 911, although the exact number that will be hired still hasn’t been determined, 911 Director Robin Jones said.

The savings also will shrink a $6.2 million budget hole county officials anticipate for 2012 because while the sheriff’s office is funded through the county’s cash-strapped general fund, 911 is funded through a levy.

Stammitti said he was pleased with the deal, which he believes could be a precursor to consolidating other law enforcement services — particularly dispatch services for other police departments in the county — in the future.

He also said that bringing back three deputies will increase the deputies working the road from 17 to 20, which will likely mean an extra deputy working most shifts.

“If you’ve got three guys back, you can put one on each shift,” Stammitti said.

The sheriff laid off 12 full-time and eight part-time deputies when the commissioners slashed about $6 million in spending across county government for 2009. Stammitti said most of the laid-off deputies have been rehired through special funds or to replace deputies who retired or otherwise left his office. Others, he said, have found other jobs.

Two of the deputies who will return to the road are working as corrections officers in the county jail, while the third currently works for the Lorain County Drug Task Force.
Commissioner Lori Kokoski called the merger of 911 and sheriff’s dispatching “awesome and exciting.”

“It’s merging things together and saving money,” she said.

Not everyone was thrilled by the decision, however.

Lucy DiNardo, staff representative for the Fraternal Order of Police in Ohio, which represents the sheriff’s dispatchers, said the union is still in negotiations over the county’s plan to lay off the dispatchers and force them to apply for new jobs at 911.

The dispatchers would have to join the United Steelworkers of America, the union which represents 911 workers, which she said could be a problem. The FOP local will continue to exist, but it will contain only one member, the sheriff’s employee who handles vehicle maintenance for Stammitti.

“We’re going to do everything we can to address this issue and basically uphold the rights of the bargaining union members,” DiNardo said.

County Administrator Jim Cordes said under a new union contract with the 911 dispatchers, also approved Wednesday, sheriff’s dispatchers hired to work at 911 will keep their seniority.

Stammitti said he has not yet determined exactly when the layoffs will come, but county officials have said most of the technical changes have been made at the 911 Dispatch Center and the employees could be moved there within the next month.

It could take up to a year to get 911 workers and former sheriff’s dispatchers crosstrained in the both jobs, however.
Commissioner Ted Kalo said he understands the concerns over the merger, but it’s what’s best for the county.

“Nobody likes change, but we have to be doing these things to come up with better ways to spend taxpayers’ money and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

Dave Noll, an adviser to the Lorain County Deputies Association, said the deputies have mixed feelings about the merger.

“We’re happy to be getting three deputies,” he said. “And we’re hoping for the best for dispatchers facing the layoff and we hope they get hired at 911.”

Commissioner Tom Williams said while he is pleased by the dispatching merger, he remains concerned about finding other places to cut. The county’s projected shortfall has prompted the commissioners to ask voters to approve a 0.25 percent sales tax increase for five years in November.

The commissioners and other elected officials have yet to determine where the cuts would come if they find themselves approximately $6 million short next year.

“I’m looking for us to do more consolidation in the county,” Williams said.
Stammitti also briefed the commissioners on his 2012 budget needs. He said this year he had a budget of about $5.2 million, but with the merger he’ll be asking for about
$4.8 million. He cautioned the commissioners that he has been delaying some expenses such as new patrol cars as he has tried to make cutbacks in recent years.

Although all the commissioners said they’d like to spare Stammitti budget cuts if the sales tax fails to pass, it was something they said the couldn’t guarantee.
Stammitti also said he anticipates a budget of about $12.1 million to run the county jail next year. Between $7 million and $7.5 million of that comes from a dedicated sales tax, but the rest of the jail budget is funded by the commissioners through the county’s general fund.

Stammitti said he can’t close the jail, just like he can’t ignore providing police protection in the townships, monitoring sex offenders, issuing concealed weapons permits and running security at the Lorain County Justice Center.

While the issue of jail overcrowding has fallen off in recent years, Stammitti warned that it could become a problem again in the future.

One idea to address the issue would be to move the county’s female inmates to the now-shuttered Elyria City Jail. He said that would free up beds for male inmates at the county jail.

Although a deal hasn’t been reached with Elyria yet, Stammitti said the negotiations would see his office stop charging Elyria for holding prisoners charged with breaking city ordinances — those charged with breaking state laws he is responsible for housing regardless of where they come from — and paying for collecting DNA samples on all felony arrests made by Elyria police, something now required under state law.

In exchange, Stammitti said, the city would allow him to use its jail as well handle maintenance and upkeep.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.