Amaral’s Bat Boosts Mariners To Victory
He can’t pitch, so the Cy Young Award is out. He missed 73 games with a broken wrist, so the Most Valuable Player Award is headed elsewhere.
Not easily discouraged, Ken Griffey Jr. set his mind on another postseason honor Sunday - Manager of the Year.
“I pulled myself out of the lineup to give this team the chance to win,” Griffey said. “That’s got to be the decision of the year.”
Turned out, it might have been.
With Griffey on the bench until the ninth inning, when he entered the game as a defensive replacement, the Seattle Mariners came from behind Sunday to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-6 - with the key blow struck by Junior’s replacement, Rich Amaral.
“He wants Manager of the Year?” Lou Piniella asked. “I’ll give him my vote, but just for today. Tomorrow he’s a player again.”
The postgame laughter came easily. The victory did not.
Already without Randy Johnson (tendinitis), the Mariners had Griffey in the original lineup but after testing his tender wrist in the batting cage, he thought it best to sit one day.
“If I’d played today, I might have needed two days off,” Griffey said.
And then Andy Benes started the game and gave up four runs in an inning of work - facing two men in the second without getting an out - and departed with his teammates in a 4-1 hole.
“This whole team pulls for one another,” Amaral said. “We know we can achieve something that’s never been done in Seattle, and we come into the dugout every inning thinking we’re going to get the job done. I hit a home run with a couple guys on base, the other day it was Felix Fermin who was hot, then it was Joey Cora.
“I knew Junior was sore and I knew I might get the chance to play. I was ready. Every guy on this team is ready.”
The comeback started slowly. Vince Coleman singled in the third inning, stole second base, stole third base, then scored on Edgar Martinez’ sacrifice fly - 4-2, Orioles.
Rafael Carmona, who’d replaced Benes, pitched 3-1/3 shutout innings. Before he left the mound in favor of left-hander Lee Guetterman, Seattle was ahead.
That’s because Fermin and Coleman singled to open the fifth inning, and Amaral got a Rick Krivda fastball up and hit it out for his second home run of the year and first since May 29. The three-run shot put Seattle on top, 5-4.
“Richie is one of those versatile players who can sit for awhile, come off the bench and get the bat on the ball,” Piniella said. “You don’t expect the home runs, but you can use him and know you’ll get speed, get hustle, get the best he’s got that day. He did a job for us when Griffey was out for 2 1/2 months.”
Guetterman followed Carmona’s job with two more shutout innings, during which Seattle added a run, then handed the game over to Bobby Ayala one out into the seventh inning.
Ayala got two quick outs, but started the eighth by allowing a walk and a single - bringing the tying run to the plate in a 7-4 game. Piniella was steamed, but he went to Norm Charlton.
“I didn’t want to use Norm until the ninth, and then for just the one inning,” he said. “I can’t overuse him, but we had to have this one - especially after coming back so far. You can’t let that game get away.”
Charlton struck out the side in the eighth, but not before allowing both Ayala’s runners to score and make it 7-6. The Mariners used a walk, a double by Tino Martinez and an error by Baltimore pitcher Armando Benitez to score twice in the ninth, and Charlton threw a 1-2-3 bottom half at the Orioles for his fifth save.
As for Baltimore, the Orioles honored Cal Ripken Jr. by unveiling the number beyond right field - 2,128 - indicating how many consecutive games the shortstop had played.
As a sellout crowd of 46,269 stood in a long ovation, Piniella and his players joined in from the top step of the Seattle dugout.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment,” Piniella said.
Notes
For those scoring at home, change the error charged to Jay Buhner on Saturday night to a double for Chris Hoiles - the official scorer reversed the call before the game Sunday after reviewing the tape… . Pitchers Lee Guetterman and Bob Wolcott were added to the Mariners’ September roster Sunday, two days after being ‘sent’ to the minor leagues. Neither went, though both were inactivated for two days… . The current longest games played streak for a Mariner is 172 consecutive games, by Edgar Martinez. To tie Ripken, Martinez would have to play 1,956 more games - and catch him on the 151st game of the season in year 2007.