Mariners decide to win for Griffey

SEATTLE — Not long after Ken Griffey Jr. surprised his teammates by announcing his retirement, the Mariners held a meeting and decided, simply enough, that they had to win this game for Griffey.

And while the victory didn’t come easy — it took 10 innings — the Mariners did manage to win the first game of the post-Griffey era.

Ichiro Suzuki, who calls Griffey one of his best teammates and friends in 19 years of professional baseball, drove in the winning run with an infield hit that scored Ryan Langerhans from second, setting off a wild celebration after a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

“Junior is a very special player to me,” Suzuki said through a translator. “I don’t know how to explain this in words, that’s how much feelings I have towards him, and I’m sure all of the players here in the clubhouse wanted to win for Junior, and it was a very important game because of what happened today when we weren’t expecting it. So it’s a big win for us.”

Suzuki had previously struck out three times — something he hadn’t done since 2007 — and admitted that Griffey’s retirement was on his mind during the game. He came up in the 10th with Langerhans, pinch running for Casey Kotchman, on second with two outs, and Josh Wilson on first. Suzuki hit ground ball up the middle that Twins second baseman Nick Punto smothered with a dive, but his throw — according to second base umpire Dale Scott anyway — was late. Langerhans never hesitated around third, and beat the throw of shortstop J.J. Hardy to score the winning run.

“I was doing everything I could,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know if I was going to quite get it, I knew it was going to be close … He made a safe call. I don’t know, I didn’t see the replay. Some of the guys said I might have been out, but what I think doesn’t matter, what Dale Scott thinks goes.”

The day started out with a home run-filled montage of Griffey’s career, but once the nostalgia passed and it was time for the 2010 Mariners to take the field, runs were once again hard to come by.

The Mariners managed just one run off Twins starter Kevin Slowey, taking a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning on a Kotchman sacrifice fly. Milton Bradley led off the inning with a single, then stole two bases to get to third.

“Milton, the one inning was a one-man wrecking crew,” M’s manager Don Wakmatsu said.

Bradley also had a bunt single in the seventh, and like so many of his teammates felt like the team needed to win on this night.

“I really wanted a win today,” said Bradley, who called Griffey after the game to tell him about the win. “I just had somebody else’s legs out there today. Just full of a lot of emotions and wanted to especially get a win tonight and have Junior’s retirement be right.”

That lead was gone two innings later when the Twins finally got to Cliff Lee. Lee had given up just four hits through six innings, but Michael Cuddyer led off the seventh with a home run to right centerfield, erasing Seattle’s short-lived lead. The home run was the first allowed this season by Lee, ending a streak of 502/3 innings without allowing a homer.

That was all the damage Lee would allow, but as has often been the case this season, he was not rewarded for a stellar outing, settling for a no decision despite allowing just one run while striking out eight in eight innings. David Aardsma and Brandon League kept the Twins off the scoreboard for the next two innings.

“Cliff Lee, outstanding,” Wakamatsu said. “Gave up a 1-2 home run, and that was the damage of the day. He was efficient with his pitches, gave us eight solid innings, and I thought the bullpen did a nice job.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.