Tino Keeps M’S Up To Bat Johnson Has Enough In 7-4 Win

Maybe they draw straws in the locker room before games.

Cut cards. Pull names from a spinning drum. Do the rock-paper-scissors thing until one guy is left.

Somehow, some way, as the Seattle Mariners have made their run to the American League playoffs, they have randomly, although entirely democratically, alternated their heroes.

Friday night, when nothing less than a win over the New York Yankees would allow the Mariners’ season to continue, the spotlight landed on first baseman Tino Martinez.

His response: three hits, including a home run, and three runs batted in to lead the M’s to a 7-4 victory.

The effort sets up Game 4 today at 4 p.m. in the Kingdome, when the Mariners attempt to level the series after falling behind 0-2 with consecutive losses in New York.

“You pick your poison in their lineup, because there’s poison all the way through it,” Yankees manager Buck Showalter said. “They have a lot of good people who are capable of beating you, and Tino is one of them.”

Showalter did, indeed, pick his poison, as Yankees pitchers walked A.L. batting champ Edgar Martinez three times to get to Tino Martinez. The sellout Kingdome crowd of 57,944 was loud but apprehensive through the early innings as Seattle ace Randy Johnson - super-human in Monday’s playoff win against California - showed he might be almost mortal after all.

A Bernie Williams homer off Johnson in the fourth hinted that a New York sweep was a possibility, even against the dominating Johnson.

In the fifth, though, Yankees starter Jack McDowell walked Edgar Martinez to lead off the inning.

“When Edgar walked, I knew I had the right side (of the infield) open,” Tino Martinez said. “The first ball was a fork ball in the dirt, so I was looking for a fastball and I got one and put a good swing on it.”

The line-drive shot was still rising as it cleared the fence in right-center, giving the M’s a 2-1 lead.

“Tino has been there for us,” M’s manager Lou Piniella said. “The home run against McDowell, we really needed. He got us on the board and made this place rock.”

The uneasiness of trailing a team that already owned a 2-0 series lead seemed to lift from the Mariners.

“We knew coming in that Randy was hurting; he’d been going on three days’ rest for a while,” Tino Martinez said. “I felt the (homer) gave the team some confidence to get back into the game.”

Johnson might have shown more grit than gift on Friday, as he performed in his second consecutive must-win game on three days’ rest.

Using breaking balls and changeups more than ever, he got the M’s through seven innings, giving up just four hits and striking out 10.

The sixth inning was the most dramatic for Johnson and Martinez. Johnson was tagged for a pair of singles and gave up two walks, and the bases were occupied when Don Mattingly came to the plate.

Mattingly was batting .381 lifetime against the Big Unit. But in this critical at-bat in the season’s most important game, Johnson struck out Mattingly with three straight sliders.

“Obviously, I was physically and mentally drained from my last start,” Johnson said. “I think I was probably mostly pitching on adrenaline. I didn’t really have my good stuff today, and I think it shows I can pitch without it.”

Perhaps energized by Johnson’s dramatic K, the Mariners struck hard in the bottom of the sixth, as Vince Coleman led off with a triple, Joey Cora walked and Edgar was once again walked to get to Tino.

“That makes sense,” Tino Martinez said of the strategy to pitch around Edgar and his .600 series batting average. “He’s the best hitter in baseball, so you have to walk him and take your chances with me.”

By this time, McDowell had been evicted from the mound (to the appropriate tune of “Hit the Road, Jack”) and Steve Howe had come on.

Tino Martinez then ripped a liner to left field to score Cora and sustain a four-run rally that would see nine M’s come to the plate.

New York scored one in the seventh, but that was matched by Seattle when Tino Martinez rocked another shot to left and Coleman scored from third as Yankees left fielder Randy Velarde wildly overthrew the plate.

The Seattle cushion was trimmed in the eighth when reliever Bill Risley was tagged with back-to-back homers by Williams and Mike Stanley.

Playing before a fervent home crowd, and having been steeled by seemingly months of huge games, Piniella thinks his M’s can advance.

“We’re very capable,” he said. “Our backs are still up against the wall, but this club has played well here all year.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo