Call Them Miracle Mariners Tino Homers In Ninth To Dump A’S
Somewhere between the time he lifted coach Lee Elia off the ground and the time he reached the celebration at home plate, Lou Piniella lost his cap Sunday.
So genuine was the joy of the moment - another ninth-inning Kingdome miracle that pulled the Seattle Mariners a day closer to a pennant - that Piniella almost let the Mariner Moose hug him.
Almost. As a player, Piniella’s disdain for on-field mascots was so great he once punched the Famous Chicken.
Not even a two-run, bottom of the ninth inning home run by Tino Martinez - a bolt off Dennis Eckersley that beat Oakland, 9-8 - had Piniella giddy enough to hug a man in a moose suit.
But it was close.
“There was a sign someone put up in center field today I saw before the game,” Piniella said. “It read ‘Refuse to lose.’ That’s the attitude this team has taken and these kids simply don’t care what the inning is, what the situation is or who they’re facing. They refuse to lose.”
Heroes piled up like wood for the winter, and a crowd of 46,714 fans helped set a three-game attendance record for the series - running the total since Friday to 152,803.
What they saw was another remarkable game of comebacks, tenacity and dramatics by a team that ran its record in September to 16-3.
“We’ve had so many guys rising to the occasion this last week and I really hadn’t done anything,” The Tino said. “When I went up there in the ninth I was thinking it was my turn.”
Martinez already had one home run Sunday, his 30th of the season, and against Eckersley in the ninth he hit No. 31 - and before he rounded the bases that huge crowd already knew Seattle had maintained its two-game lead in the American League West with six games to play.
“Tino owes me dinner because I made him a hero,” reliever Norm Charlton deadpanned. “If I don’t give up that two-run home run in the top of the inning to put us behind, he doesn’t even get an at-bat in the ninth.”
Such is the atmosphere in a winning clubhouse.
On an afternoon when the Mariners trailed Oakland 4-1, 6-3 and 8-7, the rallies that brought them back were mass-produced. Rookie Alex Rodriguez, in the game because veteran shortstop Luis Sojo has a strained back, singled on a two-out, two-strike pitch in the fourth inning to knock home two runs.
“Was it the biggest hit of my career?” Rodriguez said, laughing at the question. “In the position we’re in, anything I do is the best thing I’ve done in my career.”
Ken Griffey Jr. singled home one run, The Tino’s 30th home run cut one Oakland lead to 6-4 and in the seventh inning Edgar Martinez - allowed to face left-hander Mike Mohler - drove home two runs that forged a tie at 6.
Tony La Russa had been ejected in the second inning for barking about a strike call, so pitching coach Dave Duncan ran the game from then on, and it was his call in the seventh to leave Mohler in to face The Edgar with two men in scoring position.
“I’d struck out three times so maybe they thought I wasn’t worth changing pitchers for,” The Edgar said.
Big mistake. Martinez grounded his 51st double of the year into the left field corner, and RBI No. 110 and 111 tied the game.
Catcher Dan Wilson, who earlier had slapped a magnificent swipe tag on Rickey Henderson at the plate to prevent a run, drove home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning with a single through a drawn-in infield.
Up 7-6, the Mariners had already turned the game over to Charlton. Despite a rocky eighth inning, Charlton got one out in the ninth, walked Mark McGwire and gave up a two-run homer to ex-Mariner Danny Tartabull.
“I wasn’t happy, but look who we had coming up in the ninth,” Charlton said. “Who wants to face those boys?”
Left-hander Rick Honeycutt retired Griffey on a long fly ball, then Eckersley came in. The Edgar singled, and Piniella inserted pinch-runner Darren Bragg. The Tino walked to the plate.
“I just wanted to keep the inning going,” he said. “I was trying to hit the ball hard through the hole on the right side.”
Instead, he hit it over the fence on the right side, and bedlam ensued.