SEATTLE – Richie Sexson took one look at Adrian Beltre’s inside-the-park home run and came to one conclusion.

“For me to do that, someone would have to die,” Sexson said.

There was no death Sunday at Safeco Field, but plenty of destruction as the Mariners overcame momentum shifts, lead changes, mood swings and just about every kind of drama a late-July game can provide.

Sexson got the final swing, launching a game-winning home run leading off the ninth inning to give the Mariners a 9-8 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

It ended a game that featured eight runs in the final four innings, including Beltre’s first career inside-the-park homer to give the Mariners an 8-7 lead in the eighth, then Jason Varitek’s monster shot with two outs in the ninth to tie the score and force the Mariners into one more at-bat.

Sexson got it against veteran right-hander Mike Timlin, who had owned him – 1-for-16 – over the years. Timlin got two strikes, then tried to tie up Sexson with an inside pitch.

That had been the Red Sox’ formula early in the game when Sexson struck out twice – his 100th and 101st whiffs this season. In the ninth, however, Sexson handled that pitch, driving it into the Red Sox bullpen to win the game.

“When you play long enough, there’s guys in the league who tend to get you out no matter what you do,” Sexson said. “It wasn’t a bad pitch but I did a good job staying inside it. I’d been rolling over that pitch a lot.”

To see it drop over the fence was a relief.

Beltre pounded two long drives to left-center field and both, stalled by a breeze blowing in from left, stayed in the ballpark. His first-inning double, however, drove home two runs as the Mariners took a 3-0 lead.

“The ball wasn’t going great today,” Sexson said. “Adrian hit a couple of balls that could have gone out. He keeps hitting the wall, so I guess he’ll have to run them out the rest of the year.”

Running one out Sunday was plenty.

The Mariners had led 3-0 and 5-3 before the Red Sox came back with three runs in the sixth inning for a 7-5 lead. The Mariners tied it with two in the seventh on RBI hits by Kenji Johjima and Yuniesky Betancourt.

In the eighth, Timlin mowed through Ichiro Suzuki and Willie Bloomquist before Beltre came to bat. On a 1-0 pitch, Beltre hit a high drive that Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp seemed to have tracked.

Crisp sprinted to the wall and leaped high, only to have over-run the ball by several feet as the wind caught it. It hit the padding and bounced away. Left fielder Manny Ramirez was nearby, but merely pointed at the ball as Crisp scrambled to retrieve it.

“I thought the ball was out when I first hit it,” Beltre said. “But when I saw Coco running, I was running. You’re never sure in this ballpark.”

As Beltre rounded second base and sprinted for third, Crisp’s relay throw sailed over shortstop Alex Gonzalez. Third-base coach Carlos Garcia waved Beltre home and he slid just ahead of the throw from third baseman Mike Lowell.

It was Beltre’s first career inside-the-park homer and the first ever at Safeco Field, which opened in July, 1999. The last Mariner to do it was Randy Winn on Sept. 22, 2003, at Anaheim, and the last in a home game was Dan Wilson on May 3, 1998, against the Tigers in the Kingdome.

Beltre’s romp gave J.J. Putz an chance for his 20th save, and he seemed on his way with two strikeouts to start the ninth, David Ortiz on a 98-mph fastball and Ramirez on an 88-mph split finger.

Putz threw ball one to Varitek, then tried to fool him with a slider. Major mistake.

“I went to my third-best pitch,” Putz said. “It definitely was the wrong move. I tried to back-door it and I left it over the plate.”

Varitek blistered it off the windows of the cafe beyond the right-field fence to tie the score 8-8.

Lowell popped up to right field for the third out, and Putz did his best to settle himself in the dugout as the Mariners batted in the ninth.

“I’m in there trying to get focused for the next inning and, ‘Bam!’” Putz said.

Sexson hit the game-winner, giving the Mariners the series victory against the top team in the AL East.

“It’s a huge win for us, to beat the Red Sox, who are one of the best teams in baseball,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “To take two out of three from them and play well the entire series was important. We didn’t beat somebody who rolled over. We beat a pretty good ballclub, and that in itself is a huge boost.”