SEATTLE – Ah, September baseball between the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers.
Two teams so far behind in the American League West Division that they must look up to see the shadow of the first-place Angels, played Tuesday as if they didn’t want this miserable season to end.
It took 11 innings, nine pitchers, three intentional walks, one ejection and a mixture of marvelous defense and missed opportunities before the Rangers beat the Mariners 3-2 at Safeco Field.
Mariners teenage star Felix Hernandez lost a chance at his first career complete game when the Rangers scored with two outs in the ninth inning to tie the score 2-2.
The Rangers won it in the 11th against reliever Julio Mateo when Esteban German doubled to drive in Mark Teixeira with the winning run.
It tarnished another impressive start by Hernandez, who gave up two hits and a run in the first inning before locking down the American League’s top power team.
He took a 2-1 lead to the ninth, when manager Mike Hargrove decided the game was Hernandez’s to finish.
“He gave up four hits in eight innings, he’d thrown 95 pitches and had the lead,” Hargrove said. “If I was throwing the ball the way he was, I’d want to finish it off.
“I made the decision and I’d make it again. I think it was the right decision for a lot of reasons. He still threw the ball well; he got one pitch up.”
Needing three outs in the ninth to record his fifth victory and first complete game, Hernandez did exactly what a pitcher can’t do in a one-run game. He walked the leadoff hitter.
Hernandez got two outs and seemed o the verge of finishing his work when he got Kevin Mench in a 1-1 count. Then he left an offspeed pitch over the plate and Mench pulled it into left field to drive home German to tie the score.
“He made it tough on himself by walking the leadoff hitter,” Hargrove said.
Hernandez’s last inning nearly matched his first, when Gary Matthews Jr. started the game with a single, Michael Young followed with a double and Teixeira drove in his 139th run of the season with a ground out.
Between the first and the ninth, the Rangers managed just two hits and no runners beyond first base, the result of Hernandez’s pitching and some solid defense by the Mariners, particularly shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt.
Betancourt twice made diving stops to throw out runners, one to begin a double play, and also charged a chopper over the mound and made a strong throw to first.
Against Rangers starter Kameron Loe, the Mariners tied the score 1-1 in the fourth inning. Jeremy Reed led off with a double and scored when Raul Ibanez dumped a single to left field that Jason Botts misplayed into a run-scoring error.
The M’s went ahead 2-1 in the fifth when Jose Lopez hit a leadoff single, stole second, went to third on Yorvit Torrealba’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Reed’s RBI groundout.
Hernandez and his defense made it stand until the Rangers scored in the ninth, then won it in the 11th.
Not everyone stayed late to see it.
Many in the crowd of 22,739 – second-smallest this season at Safeco Field – had already left. Rangers manager Buck Showalter joined the departed in the eighth when he argued a call at first base and was ejected.
Ichiro Suzuki was nearly as invisible in the way the Rangers pitched him. He went 0-for-3 and remains four hits from reaching 200 for the fifth straight season.
Batting in the fifth, seventh and ninth innings with runners in scoring position and either first or second base open, the Rangers intentionally walked Suzuki each time.
When they pitched to him in the 11th, Suzuki couldn’t deliver.
Against Rangers closer Francisco Cordero, Jose Lopez hit a one-out double – his fourth hit of the game – and went to third when Betancourt followed with a single. Pinch hitter Shin-Soo Choo struck out, bringing Suzuki to the plate with runners on first and third, two outs and an open base to put him.
Cordero pitched to Suzuki, getting him to ground softly to Teixeira at first, ending the game.
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