SEATTLE — It started so routinely between the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at Safeco Field.
The Mariners pulled their minimalist practice of turning three hits and a walk into one run in the second inning, and the Padres got a two-run homer from — who else? — Adrian Gonzalez in the fourth before scoring two more runs in the fifth off fading Mariners starter Garrett Olson.
Nothing more than two low-scoring teams getting their quota out of the way early? Not this time.
The Padres pulled off something akin to the old Monty Python Spanish Inquisition skit in the sixth inning of what became a 9-7 victory over the Mariners. They dragged out the soft pillows and comfy chairs in that inning, dinking and blooping their way to a five-run rally.
It wasn’t over until the Padres squashed two late rallies by the Mariners, who scored four runs in the eighth and one in the ninth, but it was decided in the sixth.
“It got out of hand in the sixth inning,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “To score six runs in last four innings and five in the last two shows we’re not going to quit.”
The only ball the Padres blistered in the sixth was Chase Headley’s ground-rule double down the right-field line with one out. That put runners on second and third before the Padres, as the Monty Python folks might have said, used surprise and ruthless efficiency in lieu of anything hit hard.
Roy Corcoran relieved Olson and, frustrated by a couple of borderline pitches that umpire Angel Hernandez didn’t call for strikes, threw eight straight balls. He walked both Kyle Blanks and Henry Blanco, the second forcing home a run to make the score 5-1.
Everth Cabrera followed with a high hopper over third baseman Adrian Beltre’s head and deep enough in the hole that shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt could only hold it as another run scored.
Blanks, despite his 6-foot-6, 285-pound frame, sped home to score on Tony Gwynn’s sacrifice fly to medium center field, making the score 7-1. David Eckstein followed with an RBI bloop single over first baseman Russell Branyan and Scott Hairston bounced a single off Betancourt’s glove at shortstop, scoring the Padres’ fifth run of the inning.
Until then, the Mariners’ brightest moment came from Ken Griffey, Jr.
His solo home run in the sixth inning seemed important at the time only because of its historic value. It was the 5,000th home run in franchise history, 406 of them by Griffey, and eight of those this season. It made the score 9-3.
“What’s important for us is that he’s swinging the bat extremely well. His swing looks a little bit better,” Wakamatsu said. “He’s done a lot of special things for this organization.”
The Mariners did pull together a rally themselves, scoring four times in the eighth inning off Padres reliever Greg Burke. Branyan’s two-run homer, his 17th this season, was the big blow, followed by Wladimir Balentien’s RBI single and pinch hitter Mike Carp’s sacrifice fly. The rally died with a runner on third when Betancourt popped out.
Beltre didn’t bat in that inning, pulled for pinch hitter Josh Wilson after Wakamatsu noticed Beltre was favoring the sore left shoulder that sidelined him over the weekend.
“Adrian was better today, but it’s something we’ve got to protect a little bit,” Wakamatsu said. “Hopefully we can get him back in there tomorrow.”
Padres closer Heath Bell pitched the ninth to record his 20th save, but not without one last spark from the Mariners.
Ronny Cedeno walked and Suzuki singled, but Bell struck out Branyan.
Pinch hitter Mike Sweeney bounced an RBI single off Kevin Kouzmanoff’s glove at third, scoring Cedeno for a 9-7 score.
But Griffey flied out to center and Franklin Gutierrez grounded out to second base, and the Mariners finished their 70th game by falling back to .500 at 35-35.
Distraught over the breakup of Jon and Kate? Lift your spirits by reading Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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