SEATTLE — Eventually, it all spills out.
Frustration.
Joy.
Tears.
Milk.
And, for the Seattle Mariners, runs.
The Mariners washed away a week’s worth of offensive angst with a five-run seventh inning Sunday and beat the New York Yankees 10-3 at Safeco Field.
It not only gave the Mariners one victory in the four-game series, it ended a stretch of scoring that only a soccer team could appreciate.
Their lineup thinned during the homestand by injuries to third baseman Adrian Beltre (testicle), shortstop Jack Wilson (hamstring) and left fielder Michael Saunders (shoulder), the Mariners had scored only seven runs in their previous five games. They hadn’t scored more than two in any of those.
The guy struggling as badly as any, catcher Kenji Johjima, went 2-for-4 with a fourth-inning double and an eighth-inning home run, plus a bruise on his left arm after being hit by a pitch during the five-run seventh.
After going 1-for-13 on the homestand, Johjima put together his first multiple-hit game in a month and lifted his average to .248.
“Just lucky,” Johjima said, speaking in English. “I can feel good but no hits. Feel bad, three hits.
“Jesus helps,” he added, folding his hands and looking upward.
After what seemed like divine assistance with bloop hits, broken bats and disputed umpire calls that helped the Yankees win the previous two games, the Mariners won the old-fashioned way Sunday.
They got quality pitching — rookie Doug Fister held the Yankees to eight hits in seven innings to record his first major league victory — and their biggest offensive output since scoring 11 runs last Sunday against the Rays.
“His last start being his first (major league) start and this start being against the Yankees, it was very tough assignment,” Johjima said. “He stayed calm and he had a presence of mind. He had great stuff too. All I had to do was keep my target low.”
The Mariners gave Fister something Sunday they didn’t in his previous start Tuesday against the White Sox — some runs. They got 15 hits, including the two from Johjima and three from second baseman Jose Lopez.
Lopez drove home two runs in the third inning to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead, singled and scored in the fifth when the M’s scored twice more to take a 4-3 lead, then hit an RBI double in the seventh when they broke the game open.
Ichiro Suzuki drove home two runs in that inning with a high-chop single and shortstop Josh Wilson, who also finished with two hits, took a pitch between the numbers from reliever Alfredo Aceves with the bases loaded to get a stinging RBI.
“The momentum changed at that point and it seemed liked some guys loosened up,” manager Don Wakamatsu said.
It also helped that Fister had held down a Yankees team that pummeled young starter Ian Snell in the series opener Thursday, then found ways to win close games Friday and Saturday.
Fister wasn’t overwhelmed just because they were the Yankees, although he certainly was aware.
“It’s just the legend of the Yankees,” he said. “But when it comes time to go to work and make pitches and face the hitter, it’s just another hitter in the box.”
Fister lived up to his reputation as a strike-thrower, not walking a hitter and getting truly burned only in the fourth inning when he fell behind Nick Swisher 3-0, the threw a fastball that Swisher hit out to center field for a two-run homer.
The victory was the Mariners’ 61st this season, matching their total all last year.
“It makes me think, ‘Man, we lost a lot of games last year,’” Suzuki said.
It also was a good time to beat the Yankees, on a day when the Mariners drew their second-largest crowd of the season, a sellout of 45,210.
“The No. 1 goal that we came in with this year was to try and regain the confidence of the fans,” Wakamatsu said. “We don’t give in and we play hard. We’re not always going to win games but we’ve won some big ones this year. To keep your head up high and know you gave the fans their money’s worth, that’s important to us.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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