SEATTLE – When Yuniesky Betancourt risked his life two years ago by fleeing Cuba in a small boat, he shared the peril of that trip with his best friend, Saydel Beltran.
The two played baseball together in Cuba, and they fled to a better life together.
“He’s really like a brother to me,” Betancourt said. “We call each other ‘brother.’ “
Wednesday, his “brother” watched at Safeco Field as Betancourt celebrated his best moment as a baseball player.
His ninth-inning single drove in the winning run as the Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels 10-9.
Beltran, a pitcher for the Class A Charleston RiverDogs in the New York Yankees’ system, has spent the past week visiting Betancourt in Seattle. He attended several games of the Mariners’ recent homestand, and would always make eye contact with Betancourt before his at-bats.
His final at-bat was no different Wednesday, despite the pressure of the moment. The score was tied 9-9, pinch runner Ramon Santiago stood on second base and one of the American League’s best relief pitchers – Francisco Rodriguez – was on the mound ready to introduce his wicked slider to a rookie hitter.
Betancourt looked toward Beltran – his “brother” – again.
“He was nodding his head and cheering,” Betancourt said.
Then he pulled a hard grounder to left field and sprinted toward first base to celebrate his game-winning hit.
It wasn’t that automatic.
Santiago rounded third as Angels left fielder Garret Anderson scooped up the ball, then he stumbled.
“For a moment I thought I was going down,” Santiago said. “Then I regained my balance.”
He scored easily as Anderson’s throw sailed over catcher Jose Molina’s head.
It ended a game that both teams seemed more determined to lose than win.
The teams combined for 19 runs, 31 hits, seven walks, two wild pitches and a hit batter. The Mariners made three errors, one in the eighth inning to help the Angels score to make it a 9-8 score, then two in the ninth when they tied it.
Ahead 6-0 after two innings, the Angels jumped on Mariners starter Jamie Moyer with four runs in the third inning and three in the fifth to tie the score 7-7.
“This comes under the heading of taking a win any way we can get it,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “To win consistently, you’ve got to be able to pitch well and catch the ball well, and we really didn’t do either today.
“But they seemed to pitch worse than us. We’ll take it.”
The victory kept the Mariners 17 games behind the AL West-leading Angels with 17 to play, although they’ve already been mathematically eliminated because the Angels and second-place A’s play each other four more times.
Still, it was a victory to savor, and the reasons went deeper than overcoming Moyer’s difficult start when he gave back an early 6-0 lead, the errors and Eddie Guardado’s blown save.
The Mariners continued to make a difference in the division race. They have swept two series from the Angels this year and ended the 18-game season matchup 9-9 against them.
It has been a good recent run for a team filled with young players.
“You learn how to win just like you learn how to hit a curveball or throw a changeup,” Hargrove said. “Those are building blocks. It doesn’t make it any easier next time, but it helps them have the confidence that they can do it again because they’ve done it before.”
The Mariners’ big early lead – built on first-inning home runs by Raul Ibanez and Richie Sexson, plus Ibanez’s second four-hit game of the series – appeared to be melting away, especially in a bizarre ninth inning.
Needing three outs to protect a one-run led, Guardado got leadoff hitter Rob Quinlan to hit a grounder to third base, but the ball pinballed off Adrian Beltre’s feet for an error.
Pinch-hitter Zach Sorensen dropped a sacrifice bunt, but Guardado’s throw to first was wide and glanced off second baseman Jose Lopez’s glove and rolled toward right field. Pinch-runner Maicer Izturis tried to score from first, but Lopez chased down the ball and threw him out at the plate.
Sorensen reached second on the play, but Guardado got Jose Molina to ground out and had pinch-hitter Bengie Molia down two strikes. He lost him when Molina grounded a single to right and Sorensen scored the tying run.
“Even when they came back, the feeling in the dugout was that we can come back from this,” Betancourt said.
Rodriguez, fourth in the American League with 36 saves, struck out Beltre for the first out and he quickly put Lopez in a two-strike hole, throwing that nasty slider. Lopez laid off three straight pitches to work a full count, then connected with a fastball, driving it to left-center for a double.
Santiago pinch-ran for Lopez and the Angels intentionally walked Greg Dobbs to set up a double-play opportunity.
Betancourt, already 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly and two runs, looked at his best friend in the stands and dug in.
“I was just trying to make contact and not think about it too much,” he said.
He did, driving home the winning run.
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