SEATTLE — After 37 days, 80 at-bats, a new batting stance, an immeasurable amount of boos and speculation over his status with the Seattle Mariners, Richie Sexson connected again Tuesday night.
The embattled first baseman hit his first home run since May 24, an eighth-inning drive to left field that tied the score in what became a 7-6 Mariners victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Mariners won it in the ninth when Willie Bloomquist lined the first pitch from Blue Jays reliever Shawn Camp into left-center field, scoring Raul Ibanez.
“These guys have been plugging so hard, competing so hard and not getting anything for it,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “You just really feel good for them.”
On a night when the Mariners used every reliever who was able to pitch — including left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith in an emergency start — the offense bailed them out.
Adrian Beltre’s two-run home run, an opposite-field drive on a pitch at eye level, cut a 6-3 Blue Jays lead to 6-5 in the seventh inning.
Sexson, whose offensive struggle has been the symbol of the Mariners’ poor season, stepped to the plate in the eighth having shown little evidence of what he was about to do — both Tuesday night and in the past five weeks.
He’d gotten one extra-base hit since his last home run and, while he’d put together a four-game hitting streak going into Tuesday’s game, he wasn’t delivering the power the Mariners needed.
Sexson had hit two soft grounders back to the mound his first two at-bats Tuesday, then lined out to third base in the sixth inning.
With two outs and nobody on base in the eighth, Sexson worked a full count against Blue Jays left-hander Scott Downs. Then, at long last, he got a pitch he could drive — a belt-high fastball down the middle.
Sexson pulled it into the seats over the left-field fence for his 10th home run this season.
It pulled the Mariners back from a deficit they seemed determined not to overcome.
The Mariners had come back to trail 3-2 with two runs in the fourth inning, but Jose Lopez’s error on a double-play grounder in the sixth helped the Blue Jays rally to stretch their lead to 6-2.
Lyle Overbay’s grounder rolled between Lopez’s legs, turning what appeared to be an easy double play into an opportunity that the Blue Jays didn’t squander. Instead of a two-out, nobody-on-base situation, Lopez’s error put runners on first and third with nobody out. Right-hander Roy Corcoran, who relieved Rowland-Smith in the fourth, couldn’t overcome it.
He walked Scott Rolen to load the bases, gave up an RBI single to Gregg Zaun and a two-run single to Adam Lind. The Jays led by four runs.
Corcoran and the rest of the bullpen shut down the Blue Jays from there — he five of the next six Blue Jays, Arthur Rhodes got two outs in the eighth, Sean Green struck out Marco Scutaro with two runners on base to end the eighth, and Brandon Morrow struck out the side in the ninth.
In the meantime, the Mariners came back on Yuniesky Betancourt’s RBI single in the sixth and Beltre’s two-run homer in the seventh made it 6-5. Then Sexson delivered to tie the score in the eighth.
With the Mariners having used every available reliever, they needed a quick end in the bottom of the ninth.
Ibanez drew a leadoff walk and reached second on Vidro’s sacrifice bunt. Downs intentionally walked Beltre, but Bloomquist launched the first pitch he saw into left-center field to win the game.
It gave the Mariners their fourth victory in the past five games and set off a spirited celebration around Bloomquist on the field.
“What comes first? Are they spirited because they’re winning or are they winning because they’re spirited?” Riggleman asked. “We just want to play good baseball. If we’d lost that ballgame, I’d still have been very proud of them.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com
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