NEW YORK — Felix Hernandez claimed a piece of the Seattle Mariners’ career strikeout record Saturday in a shaky effort when the bullpen closed out a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees.
Closer Steve Cishek gained his first save as a Mariner by stranding the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position in the ninth inning.
But credit a key read-and-react decision by third-base coach Manny Acta in the Mariners’ three-run fifth inning for this victory. Acta waved home Ketel Marte, who scored the tie-breaking run from first on a two-out single.
“They’re always anticipating that they’re going to score,” Acta said. “We have to stop them. We try to teach them not to assume (we’re going to stop them).
“Marte deserves all of the credit because a lot of guys would have pulled and been comfortable at third base.”
Let’s reset: The Mariners trailed 1-0 when Leonys Martin led off the fifth inning with a 413-foot homer to right field against New York starter CC Sabathia (1-1).
Luis Sardinas followed with a single and moved to second on Nori Aoki’s grounder to first before he seemed to short-circuit the inning with a base-running mistake.
Sardinas rounded third too far on Marte’s infield single and was thrown out before he could get back to the base.
Then the game turned.
Marte broke from first on a 2-2 pitch to Robinson Cano, who sent a hard grounder up the middle into center field. Marte was nearly to second when the ball got through the infield — and he kept on coming.
“I was running 100 percent,” Marte said, “and I looked at Manny. He was sending me. That was a surprise, but when Robby got the hit, I was almost to second.”
The relay throw to the plate was late and permitted Cano to reach second. That turned into the eventual winning runs when Nelson Cruz followed with an RBI double past third for a 3-1 lead.
“We’ve got to stay aggressive when we’re in that part of the lineup,” manager Scott Servais said. “We’ve got guys who can run.”
Cruz’s double finished Sabathia (1-1) and provided Hernandez (1-1) and a four-man bullpen relay with just enough to eke out a third straight victory.
Hernandez matched a career-high by issuing six walks and needed 106 pitches to complete five innings. Even so, he yielded just one run and, with four strikeouts, matched Randy Johnson’s franchise record of 2,162.
“You’re not going to believe me,” Hernandez said. “In the bullpen, I was painting. Every pitch. Then when I came out for the game, it wasn’t there.”
Vidal Nuno pitched around a leadoff double in the sixth, but Nick Vincent surrendered a one-out homer in the seventh to Carlos Beltran, which trimmed the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.
Joaquin Benoit, in his first appearance in eight days, worked around a two-out error in the eighth before Cishek made things interesting. He retired the first two hitters before the Yankees mounted a threat.
“I didn’t want it to be that sketchy after getting the first two outs so quickly,” Cishek said. “But, hey, they’re not all going to be easy.”
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