Mariners chop down Tampa Bay

Published 9:00 pm Monday, September 3, 2001

By Kirby Arnold

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners have averaged barely over 2 1/2 runs in their past seven games, yet they’re 5-2 in that span.

Any questions now about the value of pitching, defense and, the key ingredient Monday night, speed?

Further proof came in the form of a 3-2, 11-inning victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Safeco Field when Stan Javier hit a high chopper for an infield single to score Al Martin from third base with the winning run.

On the night Jay Buhner got the biggest early cheers when he simply trotted into left field in his first Seattle appearance of the season, speed delivered the victory when five of the Mariners’ 13 hits never left the infield.

Mike Cameron’s stolen base in the 10th inning set up his dash for home with the tying run on Mark McLemore’s single, and Martin stole second in the 11th before he advanced to third and scored on Javier’s second infield single of the night.

“This is our game,” Javier said. “We know we can beat anybody with our speed, defense and pitching. That’s how we do it. We don’t try to overpower anybody.”

From an inning-by-inning standpoint, especially in the past week, that’s true. The Mariners have scored just 18 runs in their last seven games but they’ve won five of them.

Monday’s victory clinched no less than a wild-card playoff berth, but it also trimmed the Mariners’ magic number to seven for winning the American League West Division. It also was their 99th victory of the season.

Not many of them were this difficult to achieve.

The Mariners, who have moved runners with ease all season, pushed across a first-inning run and then forgot the formula until the 10th inning after they had fallen behind.

Ben Grieve’s leadoff home run off Jeff Nelson gave the Devil Rays a 2-1 lead and forced the Mariners to come back from the brink of defeat.

Cameron was at the plate, buried in an 0-2 count with two outs, when reliever Esteban Yan threw a slider that shattered his bat. The barrel stopped at shortstop, but the ball carried into left field for a single.

Cameron stole second and scored when McLemore ripped a game-tying single to right field off Yan.

Nelson got the first out of the 11th and left-hander Norm Charlton retired the next two, taking the game to an unusual meat of the Mariners’ batting order in the 11th.

John Olerud, batting in the eighth spot after pinch-hitting in the ninth inning, led off with a bloop single to center, then was replaced by the speedy Martin on the basepaths.

Martin stole second with Carlos Guillen at the plate. Guillen struck out, but Ichiro Suzuki bounced an infield single – his second of the game and his 211th of the season – over second base to move Martin to third.

Javier, who hit a 20-foot single in the first inning, bounced one about twice that far and three times that high to score the winning run. Third baseman Jared Sandberg made a futile barehand wave at the ball as it came down, but Javier easily was on his way to first and Martin was sliding home.

“It was beautiful,” Javier said. “It was a lucky bounce, but we’ll take it.”

Jamie Moyer, whose season had reached cruise control with victories in seven straight decisions, couldn’t get a career-best eighth straight Monday. He escaped the wrath of eight hits and a walk in seven innings that rendered a no decision, leaving his record at 16-5.

Tampa Bay starter Paul Wilson, who pitched seven shutout innings against the Mariners last week, nearly did it again.

He gave up seven hits and three walks but squirmed out of trouble in all but the first inning, when Suzuki led off with a single and scored on Cameron’s two-out sacrifice fly.

Among those hits was a chopper that Buhner beat out for an infield single in the fourth inning, his first hit since last year’s playoffs against the Yankees. Buhner has spent the year rehabbing an injured left arch that he hurt in spring training and needed surgery to repair in June.

“He labored a lot to get back,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I thought it was very important to get him out in left field and give the fans a chance to give him a great welcome.”

They did, with a standing ovation that lasted almost a minute when Buhner came to bat in the first inning. He finished 1-for-3, caught one fly and made a sliding crash into the base of the wall chasing a foul ball in the first inning. McLemore replaced Buhner in left field in the top of the seventh.

“He started tightening up a little bit,” Piniella said. “We’re going to have to work him in gradually.”

The Mariners’ offense seemed in similar condition most of the night, until McLemore’s tying single in the 10th and Javier’s winner in the 11th.

“We found a way to win a ballgame,” Cameron said. “Pretty much, that’s all that counts to us.”