SEATTLE – On what became get-well night for a few slumping Seattle Mariners, they pulled out something else they needed badly.
A victory.
The Mariners rallied from a 6-1 deficit with eight runs in the final three innings to beat the Texas Rangers 9-6 at Safeco Field.
Carl Everett delivered the final blow, a three-run homer in the ninth inning with two runners on base after the M’s already had scored twice to tie the score 6-6.
It ended a three-game Mariners losing streak and pulled them within a half-game of first place in an American League West Division that has four teams with records below .500.
“Twenty-seven outs, that’s our motto,” Everett said. “I’ve seen many teams win after 26 outs.”
The Rangers got 25, and the first 18 came with relative ease.
Texas starter Kevin Millwood held the Mariners to one run and seven hits in the first six innings, and the Rangers gave him a 6-1 lead with four runs off M’s starter Jamie Moyer and two off reliever Julio Mateo.
Then, the Mariners got to Millwood, and some struggling hitters did their part.
Ichiro Suzuki, 1-for-20 in his previous five games, went 4-for-4 – lifting his average 50 points to .227 – and started the winning rally when Rangers closer Francisco Cordero hit him on the foot with a pitch.
Adrian Beltre, the only M’s regular without an RBI this season, delivered in the clutch in the eighth with a double off the right-field wall that scored Everett.
And the Mariners, as a team, erased the nightmare of Monday’s ninth-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox when Mark Loretta hit a two-run homer off M’s closer Eddie Guardado.
“I don’t know that you can quantify this as a lift for us,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “But it’s the exact opposite of the last pitch we threw in Boston and it’s good to see smiles on peoples’ faces and music playing in the clubhouse.”
That possibility seemed bleak early, when the Rangers wiped out an early 1-0 Mariners lead with single runs off Moyer in the second and fourth innings, then two in the fifth.
They pushed the lead to 6-1 off Mateo in the sixth when Hank Blalock hit a two-run double.
“We started off slow at the beginning, but you’ve got to play all 27 outs,” Everett said.
The Mariners started their comeback with a run in the seventh off a faltering Millwood. Jeremy Reed blooped a one-out single to center, Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a single to left and Suzuki got his fourth hit, a bloop to right that drove in Reed. That made it 6-2.
Raul Ibanez started the bottom of the eighth with a double to left-center off Millwood, and Richie Sexson followed with a single to left.
Antonio Alfonseca relieved Millwood in immediately got Kenji Johjima to ground into a double play, bringing Ibanez home with the Mariners’ third run. Everett then doubled to right field and Beltre followed with a double off the base of the right-field wall, making it 6-4 before Rangers reliever Akinori Otsuka got pinch-hitter Roberto Petagine on a grounder back to the mound for the third out.
Mariners reliever J.J. Putz pitched around Gary Matthews Jr.’s leadoff double and a two-out walk to hold the Rangers scoreless in the top of the ninth, and the M’s won it in the bottom of the inning.
Suzuki was hit on the foot by a Cordero slider, Jose Lopez doubled off the left-field wall, and Ibanez barely missed ending the game, lifting a high fly to right that Adrian Brown caught near the wall. Suzuki scored on the sacrifice fly – 6-5 – and Sexson tied the score with a single to left that drove in Lopez.
Johjima lined a single up the middle, pushing pinch runner Matt Lawton to second representing the tying run.
The Rangers brought in left-hander C.J. Wilson to turn the switch-hitting Everett to his less-productive side.
It didn’t matter.
“I wanted a base hit right there,” Everett said. “With a guy on second base, you want the ball on the outfield grass and that’s a run. The pressure is on the pitcher because he doesn’t want to load the bases.”
With the count 1-1, Wilson tried to jam Everett with a slider.
“He didn’t get it inside enough,” Everett said.
He stung a line drive off the faade of the second deck, just inside the left-field foul pole.
“I knew it was fair,” Everett said. “There was no chance that ball was going to hook.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
