SEATTLE – Kenji Johjima has tried everything lately to break out of his hitting slump with the Seattle Mariners.
He has worked overtime with hitting coach Jeff Pentland, studied video of his swing and, Saturday afternoon before batting practice, even leaned his bats against the dugout bench just inches from where Ichiro Suzuki leaves his.
Whether it was that bit of baseball fung shui or the hanging curveball that Kenny Rogers threw him, Johjima unloaded his most productive swing in more than three weeks.
His sixth-inning grand slam carried the Mariners to a 6-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Safeco Field.
“Kenji had his best at-bat of the year,” manager John McLaren said. “He got hurt in Kansas City (early this month) and his hand has been a little sore. He’d been playing through it but he started getting into a few bad habits. Jeff Pentland has been working with him, and he looked like himself tonight. That was a tremendous at-bat for us.”
It allowed the Mariners to win the second in three games of the four-game series against the American League Central-leading Tigers, who had won Friday night on Gary Sheffield’s grand slam. It also allowed the M’s to keep pace in the AL West with the first-place Angels, who beat Texas to maintain their three-game lead.
Except for Ichiro Suzuki, no Mariner had started the season as well as Johjima, who was batting .316 on June 20 after a 3-for-4 game against the Pirates that included his eighth home run. And, except for Richie Sexson, no Mariner has struggled like Johjima since that game.
Entering Saturday, Johjima had batted .167 in the previous 15 games, and in the fourth inning he muffed a huge RBI opportunity against Rogers when he grounded out with a runner on third and one out.
Johjima got another chance in the sixth, with the bases loaded this time, and he didn’t miss.
With the Mariners leading 2-1, Jose Guillen led off the inning with a single and Rogers followed that by walking Sexson and Adrian Beltre to load the bases with nobody out.
Rogers got two strikes on Johjima, who fell into survival mode and fouled off the next two pitches.
“You’re talking about the craftsman of all craftsmen out there,” McLaren said of Rogers. “He was throwing the kitchen sink at him. But Kenji fouled them off and got into a position where he had a pitch to hit.”
Rogers threw a breaking pitch where Johjima could attack it – down the middle – and he did with full force. Johjima drove the ball over the fence in left field for his second grand slam of the season, giving the Mariners a five-run lead, 6-1.
In the end, they needed nearly all of it.
Mariners starter Miguel Batista held the Tigers to five hits and a run – on Curtis Granderson’s homer to lead off the game – then felt a blister developing on a finger of his pitching hand.
McLaren put the lead into the hands of his relievers and they protected it, while delivering some nervous moments.
Sean Green pitched a perfect seventh but gave up two hits and a run in the eighth. McLaren brought in right-hander Chris Reitsma, in his third appearance since coming off the disabled list, and the Tigers popped him for two more hits and two runs.
Raul Ibanez’s running catch at the wall on a fly ball by Ivan Rodriguez turned a potential RBI double into the second out of the eighth, and McLaren didn’t hesitate to let closer J.J. Putz finish.
Putz ended all suspense with a record-setting save.
He got Sean Casey on a check-swing bouncer back to the mound for the Tigers’ third out in the eighth, then struck out all three hitters he faced in the ninth – Marcus Thames, Brandon Inge and Granderson.
The save was Putz’s 28th straight – including two at the end of last season to break Eddie Guardado’s club record for consecutive saves. His 26-for-26 streak this year is the longest in the major leagues.
“I don’t have new words to describe him,” McLaren said of Putz. “He’s there for us every night. It’s difficult to think where we’d be without him.”
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