SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners already had pulled off one rarity, Dave Hansen’s pinch-hit home run off Tim Hudson to tie the score in the seventh inning.
Then they followed it with another unexpected event: a bullpen meltdown.
The Oakland A’s scored four runs off Mariners relief pitchers, including three in the ninth inning off Mike Myers and Shigetoshi Hasegawa to break a tie game and beat the M’s 7-4 Wednesday night at Safeco Field.
The loss ended the Mariners’ four-game winning streak and gave Oakland its first victory of the four-game series, which ends today.
“I really thought we had a good chance to win that game,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “When we came back and tied it, it seemed like the momentum swung our way. But their middle-of-the-order guys got it done when they needed to get it done.”
Myers, who got the final out of the A’s half of the eighth, walked Eric Byrnes to lead off the ninth before Eric Chavez poked a single between first and second.
Melvin then brought in Hasegawa, but Jermaine Dye lined a double into the left-field corner that scored both runners. Scott Hatteberg reached safely when Bret Boone couldn’t handle a bad-hop – ruled an error – and Dye scored on Erubiel Durazo’s sacrifice fly.
“Dye, I don’t know if he’s guessing right there, but he put a pretty good swing on that ball,” Melvin said. “Shiggy’s had some good success off him in the past and I guess it was his turn to get him that time.
“Our bullpen has been good. We didn’t get it done tonight and the middle of their order did.”
The last-inning crumble nullified another day of good vibes via the home run ball.
The M’s trailed 4-1 in the seventh inning when Hansen grabbed a bat and accomplished one of the most difficult feats in baseball.
He cracked the 15th pinch-hit home run of his career to put him alone in seventh place on baseball’s all-time list. Cliff Johnson is the career leader with 20 pinch homers, followed by Jerry Lynch (18), John Vander Wal (17), Gates Brown, Smoky Burgess and Willie McCovey (all with 16).
More important to the matters of the moment, Hansen’s homer tied the score 4-4 on a night when Hudson seemed hittable but not beatable.
He had allowed seven hits, walked one and hit three batters, but he turned those opportunities to dust when the Mariners tied a franchise record by grounding into five double plays.
That was in Hansen’s mind as he batted for catcher Ben Davis with one out and two runners on base in the seventh.
“I was trying to stay out of the double play,” he said. “He had a quite a few of them today, so I was trying to get the ball in the air and it just went out.”
The A’s scored early and just enough off M’s starter Gil Meche, who allowed six hits and three runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Mark Kotsay led off the game with a double and scored two batters later when Eric Chavez hit into a double play. Chavez started the fourth inning with an opposite-field home run that barely cleared the left-field fence, and the A’s nicked Meche again in the sixth when he walked the first two batters before Esteban German hit a two-out RBI single to make it 3-0.
Kevin Jarvis finished that inning but allowed a run in the seventh when Byrnes hit a leadoff double and scored on Hatteberg’s two-out double.
By then, Hudson was ahead 4-0 and seemed in command.
He also was knocking the Mariners off the plate with inside pitches, three of which hit Edgar Martinez, John Olerud and Raul Ibanez. Melvin had seen enough after Ibanez was hit in the foot in the seventh inning and he had words with plate umpire Rob Drake.
“He tries to move everybody’s feet and pitch up around Edgar’s face a lot,” Melvin said. “I just thought we should get a warning at some point. You get tired of seeing your guys get hit.”
Moments after Melvin had his say, Rich Aurilia singled to center field and Olerud singled to right, scoring Ibanez with the Mariners’ first run.
Then Hansen grabbed a bat and made it a whole new game with his homer, although it didn’t last.
“I’d much rather have won the game,” Hansen said. “I hit one out tonight, but really it didn’t matter too much.”
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