Blowers, Of All People Struggling Mariner Breaks Out For 8 Rbis In 15-6 Rout Of Boston
National League
It may not rate a banner headline - Mike Blowers has never been an across-the-top-of-the-page kind of guy - but on Wednesday he had a night that sends mothers running for the scissors and the scrapbook.
“The Tacoma Kid Lives?” If it fits, run it. The pride of Tacoma Community College shattered a month-long slump and the Boston Red Sox with four swings two doubles, a triple, a home run and eight RBI.
Only one other player in Seattle history had as many RBI in a game, Alvin Davis, and no Seattle Mariner had ever produced four extra-base hits in a game.
Nice evening? It was for Blowers and most of the Seattle Mariners, who overcame a couple of deficits to rout the Red Sox, 15-6.
Not everyone enjoyed Blowers’ coming-out party. Certainly not Tim Davis, for instance. And probably not the team’s owners, who entertained a Kingdome crowd of 10,041 - the smallest Kingdome gathering to watch a baseball game since Oct. 2, 1992.
As for Blowers, had he been asked, he might have invited each fan over for breakfast this morning. After career-altering seasons in which he batted .280, then .289 for the Mariners, the Bethel High graduate showed up for work Wednesday carting a .118 batting average with no home runs and seven RBI in his first 18 games.
Even worse, that average had been dropping due to a 4-for-36 stretch in which he’d batted .111 and all but lost his every day job at third base. “Platoon” seemed the operative term for a guy who’d gone 0-for-29 against any and all right-handed pitchers.
The thing was, Blowers still thought he could hit. And manager Lou Piniella agreed, although he was having a little trouble explaining why. Blowers started this game because Boston left-hander Vaughn Eshelman was starting, but after Eshelman departed - and a run of right-handers followed him - Piniella stuck with Blowers.
It worked out.
Tim Davis, the struggling starting pitcher de jour, followed in the footsteps of departed fourth and fifth starters all season by getting into his struggle fast. Before he got three outs, he’d given up three runs, forcing the final one home on a bases-loaded walk.
Seattle fought back with single runs in the first and second innings - Blowers scoring one after a second-inning double - then scored three in the third inning to stake Davis to a 5-3 lead.
That lead lasted all of half an inning, after which Boston led 6-5 and Davis was in the clubhouse.
When rookie reliever Rafael Carmona set to work, so did Blowers and the rest of the Seattle attack.
Jay Buhner had a pair of hits and two RBIs before leaving the game with a tight left hamstring - and 23 RBIs in his first 24 games. Ken Griffey Jr., emerging from his own long slump, had two hits, a couple of walks and scored three runs. Luis Sojo had three hits and scored three times and rookie Darren Bragg, who started this game on the bench, chippped in a sacrifice fly and a couple of RBIs.
Blowers, however, beat the Sox with a perfect example of timely hitting.
Two outs into the fourth inning, with the game tied at 6, Boston right-hander Jeff Pierce walked Edgar Martinez to load the bases for Blowers, who then made the Red Sox wonder about their own scouting reports.
Can’t hit right-handed pitching? Blowers doubled up the gap in right center field to drive in all three baserunners and put Seattle ahead for good.
Boston obviously didn’t think that could happen again, so in the fifth inning, manager Kevin Kennedy ordered Edgar Martinez intentionally walked - again setting up a bases-loaded confrontation with Blowers. This time, the pitcher was right-hander Alejandro Pena.
This time, Blowers tripled.
Seventh inning, guess what. Bragg walked and with two out, Blowers hit a two-run home run - his first of the year - against Derek Lilliquist. A left-hander.
The Tacoma Kid lives.
Which may be more a stretch when talking about the No. 4 or No. 5 pitchers in the Seattle rotation. On Monday in Detroit, Bob Wells probably lost his starting job by giving up six of the Tigers seven first-inning runs.
Two days later, Davis made his fifth start of the season and lasted 3 1/2 innings, during which he gave up six hits and six walks and, well, six runs. For the year, that meant Davis had allowed 30 hits and 18 walks in 24 innings.
Mariners notes
Dan Wilson entered the game with the best batting average (.339) of all A.L. catchers, one point ahead of Milwaukee’s Joe Oliver. The irony? Wilson was a backup in 1993 to Oliver when both played for Cincinnati… . Edgar Martinez ranks 11th all-time in career doubles ratio - that means he doubles more often, once every 14.4 at-bats, than all but 10 players who ever had as many as 2,000 major-league at-bats.