SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners have climbed within 1 games of first place in the American League West Division, stirring one question of their surge: How?
They have only one player batting .300 – Ichiro Suzuki at .352.
Their supposed run producer, Richie Sexson, continues to flounder with a .199 average, 15 home runs and 49 runs batted in. And their designated hitter, Jose Vidro, has 29 RBI.
They don’t have a starting pitcher with more than nine victories at a point in the season when every other first and second-place team in the league has one with at least 10.
So how have the Mariners kept winning?
Games like Wednesday’s 6-5 victory, when they lost a four-run lead to the Baltimore Orioles before going back ahead with a run in the eighth, have revealed much of the answer.
Suzuki continued his hitting rampage with two hits; Ben Broussard maintained his drive to get more playing time with a home run; and Yuniesky Betancourt had three hits and set up the winning rally with his leadoff double in the eighth inning.
The Mariners won it when Adrian Beltre fouled off two full-count pitches from Chad Bradford, then drew a two-out walk with the bases loaded to force home Vidro with the go-ahead run.
That, and another late-inning lockdown by the bullpen – featuring closer J.J. Putz’s 28th save this season – helped the Mariners win for the eighth time in 12 games. They also won two of three from the Orioles and have lost only one series since they were swept at Houston in mid-June.
“We’re playing exciting baseball and we feel like our best ball is ahead of us,” manager John McLaren said. “We never get down. Some things went against us tonight, but we hung in there. From what I understand, in years past something like this might have cost them a game. But we’ve got the karma and the presence on our team now that if something happens, we’ll battle through it and get it done somehow, some way.”
Yes, the Mariners have issues, but they’ve made up ground on the first-place Angels in the past month, not lost it. Since June 25, when the Angels had an eight-game lead on the Mariners, they’ve gone 6-11 while the M’s have been 14-6.
The Mariners haven’t been this close to the Angels since they were 1 games out on May 13.
“What? The Angels lost tonight?” McLaren asked, cracking a wry smile. “Yeah, we scoreboard watch.
“I’m having a lot of fun. This is what baseball’s all about. When games mean something, you want to be there.”
It was sheer joy early in the game, when the Mariners cruised to a 5-1 lead through five innings, getting a strong outing by Jarrod Washburn and runs in the second, third, fourth and fifth.
Betancourt and Suzuki drove in runs with RBI singles in the second; Broussard scored on a wild pitch in the third; Vidro’s single drove in a run in the fourth; and Broussard’s home run, his fifth of the season, made the score 5-1 in the fifth.
If that lead seemed to happen too easily, it did.
Washburn, attempting to join Miguel Batista as the Mariners’ second nine-game winner, was on his way until the seventh inning. He had allowed single runs in the second and sixth and led 5-2 going to the seventh.
Then Aubrey Huff singled and Jay Payton doubled, and Washburn labored.
Before the Mariners knew it, the Orioles had five hits and a sacrifice fly in the inning off Washburn and left-hander George Sherrill.
Sean Green, fast becoming the Mariners’ most reliable right-handed setup reliever, took over and got the final out of the seventh, then all three in the eighth to buy enough time for the Mariners offense to win the game.
They did when Betancourt led off with a double into the left-field corner. Through a series of walks and a hit batter, the Orioles loaded the bases but also got two outs in the process, bringing up Beltre against submarine-throwing Bradford. Beltre worked a full count, then fouled off two pitches to stay alive.
“Bradford is so tough on right-handed hitters,” McLaren said. “His ball looks like a strike and it sinks out of the strike zone. Adrian fouled off a couple of borderline pitches.”
Then he took a ball outside to force home the go-ahead run.
Putz pitched the ninth wiped out the Orioles 1-2-3, extending his team record with 30 straight saves going back to last year.
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