SEATTLE – After the third standing ovation, Edgar Martinez paid back his fans.
Martinez, even more the darling of the Safeco Field crowd after his announcement Monday that he will retire, hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat to launch the Seattle Mariners to a 4-3 victory Tuesday night over the Minnesota Twins.
“That’s a storybook thing right there,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s not real life.”
The home run followed three standing ovations by the crowd of 36,290, which honored him twice before the game and again as he walked to the plate before his first at-bat.
“It was a thrill for me,” Martinez said. “They’ve always been great to me.”
In the Mariners’ dugout as Martinez dug in at the plate, Melvin turned to Bucky Jacobsen and had a prophetic thought.
“I said ‘Wouldn’t it be something if he hits a home run here?’” Melvin told Jacobsen.
Twins pitcher Terry Mulholland threw ball one, then another pitch that Martinez pulled into the left-field seats for his ninth home run and a 2-0 Mariners lead.
“I was hard-pressed to get Edgar something (as a retirement gift), so this will have to do,” said Mulholland, who was Martinez’s teammate for six weeks during spring training before the Mariners cut him.
Mulholland’s giving mood continued.
Bret Boone followed Martinez’s homer with a double, and Jacobsen hit a first-pitch homer into the Mariners’ bullpen for a 4-0 lead.
Nobody needed that cushion more than starting pitcher Gil Meche, whose last victory was May 2 at Detroit before control problems left him with a 1-5 record and a demotion to Class AAA Tacoma to work on his control problems.
Tuesday, Meche rarely missed.
He gave up two hits – both solo home runs – in eight innings and confused the Twins with a curveball and changeup that he threw for strikes at any time in the count.
“I hadn’t won a game in a long time, and this is definitely what I’m looking to come back here and do,” Meche said. “Be consistent, go at guys and go deeper into ballgames.”
The Mariners managed 10 hits off Mulholland in seven innings but no more runs, thanks to double plays that ended the second and third innings and a pickoff move that caught Justin Leone flat-footed off second base after his leadoff double in the seventh.
J.J. Putz took over in the ninth to protect a 4-2 lead, and he needed all of it to record his second save.
Jose Offerman hit a sinking line drive that Boone snagged with a backhand reach and Justin Morneau grounded sharply to first baseman Scott Spiezio for the second out.
Torii Hunter homered into the right-field seats to make it 4-3, and Jacque Jones singled to put the tying run on base with Corey Koskie, who homered in the fifth inning, batting next.
On the first pitch, Koskie popped up, ending a night that began with a moment of magic on Martinez’s home run.
“If you were to write a story, that would be the exact ending you would want,” Meche said. “The whole team felt every bit of that. It was a great moment.”
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