By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
BALTIMORE – About the same time Lou Piniella was telling Ichiro Suzuki there’d be a change in Sunday’s lineup, Bret Boone was pacing around the Seattle Mariners clubhouse as unhappy as ‘The Boone’ can be.
Suzuki was dropped from his usual leadoff spot to third in the batting order as Piniella tried to find more offense.
And Boone?
Just after 11 a.m., before the team’s 55th game of the season, he vented a bit.
“I’m officially tired of this bleep,” he said. “I am not a .248 hitter.”
By the time the sun went down in Maryland, Seattle had staged a remarkable comeback to beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-8 and Piniella, Suzuki and Boone were all smiles as they boarded an airplane bound for Oakland.
After the Orioles pounded Joel Pineiro and took a 6-0 lead that became 7-1, the Mariners comeback was fueled by solid relief pitching, a big day from Suzuki and a productive afternoon by Boone.
As a manager willing to try most anything, Piniella’s call to slide Suzuki into the heart of the lineup did what it was intended to, at least for a day – and the Mariners hottest hitter added four more hits to his resume.
“I never thought of myself as a No. 3 hitter in the major leagues,” Suzuki said after scoring twice and driving in a run. “Look at this body.”
Someone asked if Suzuki considered himself the scrawniest No. 3 hitter in the game.
“I’m the skinniest leadoff hitter, too,” he said.
Like most of his teammates Sunday, Boone started slow, and by the sixth inning, with Seattle down by six runs, all he had to show for his day was an out and a bruise from being hit by a pitch.
Then Suzuki singled and, with one out, Boone doubled him to third base and Desi Relaford walked.
With two outs, catcher Ben Davis came up with a guilty conscience and the bases loaded.
“I kind of felt responsible for all those runs, because everyone knows Joel can pitch,” he said. “You start to wonder if you’ve put the wrong finger down or something.”
Davis singled home two runs, Jeff Cirillo singled home another and it was 7-4.
“This whole series, the team that had the lead has had trouble keeping it,” Piniella said. “We couldn’t hold two. We wanted one back today.”
Across the field, Mike Hargrove kept going to the bullpen, trying to match right-handers against righties, left-handers against lefties and nothing worked.
Three more runs in the seventh inning tied the game, with Boone, John Olerud and Davis driving in runs.
“When you’re down big like that, you don’t think about tying the game up, you think about your next at-bat and trying to do well in that,” Olerud said.
Davis was so caught up in the rally that when his seventh-inning single tied the game, he didn’t realize it.
“I got to first and saw the scoreboard and thought, ‘Hey, we’ve tied it,’” he admitted.
Into the eighth inning they went, with Julio Mateo, then Arthur Rhodes holding Baltimore scoreless.
Ruben Sierra walked. Suzuki slapped a single to third base – his 27th infield hit of the season – and Olerud walked.
On a 1-1 pitch, Boone hit the third grand slam of his career and the Mariners went ahead for the first time.
“I know it hasn’t shown, but I’ve been feeling a little better at the plate,” Boone said. “I’m still kind of going at-bat to at-bat, but the pitch he threw before the home run, I fouled straight back – and that felt like my swing.”
So Boone used it again, hit his eighth home run of the year and ran his RBI total to 39.
“We just scored 11 runs, so Ichiro is hitting third again,” Piniella said afterward. “Hell, Ichiro can hit anywhere – and as long as he’s somewhere in the lineup, I’m happy.”
Suzuki was asked the biggest difference between batting first and batting third, but before he could answer, Edgar Martinez interrupted.
“The difference was, it took him longer to get his four hits today,” Martinez said.
Boone didn’t even try to minimize the impact of winning Sunday, both for the team and himself.
“I’m me, I’m going to be chirping whether I’m hot or not,” he said. “But we lost two tough games here back-to-back and got behind 7-1? That’s looking like a long flight to Oakland, right there.
“To come back like we did, that’s a big boost for us. It should remind us, this is why we’ve been so good, the ability to come back like we have in the past.”
Boone checked his audience, then smiled.
“Now, me getting three hits in a game? That’s a modern miracle.”
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