M’S Win, Clinch Tie For West Seattle Low Key After A 4-3 Victory

Aside from a few high-fives and handshakes, there was little celebrating Friday night after the Seattle Mariners clinched a tie for their first division title.

The West wasn’t quite won yet.

The Mariners scored two runs in the eighth inning and beat Texas 4-3. Because California defeated Oakland 9-6, the outright division title would have to wait for at least another day. Seattle needs another victory here today or Sunday, or a California loss in one of its last two games.

“There’s still work to be done, but we’re closer,” manager Lou Piniella said. “When it does get done we’ll be happy about it.

“I’m going to have a cold beer, take a shower and enjoy the win and not worry what’s going on out West. We can control our destiny because we have two games left in the season,” Pinella said.

Edgar and Tino Martinez had back-to-back sacrifice flies in the eighth inning for Seattle, which won for the 15th time in 16 games. It was Seattle’s 43rd comeback win this year.

Vince Coleman had a leadoff single in the eighth and Ed Vosberg (5-5) relieved Bobby Witt. Third baseman Mike Pagliarulo booted a grounder by Rich Amaral, the M’s pulled off a double steal and Ken Griffey Jr. walked to load the bases.

Edgar Martinez then hit a sacrifice fly off Roger McDowell and Tino Martinez got his off Dennis Cook.

“We have the speed to manufacture runs,” Piniella said. “We have speed and we use it.”

The Rangers, who were eliminated from the playoff race Thursday by Seattle, left nine runners on base in the first four innings and 15 overall.

“We had our chances,” said Texas manager Johnny Oates. “We had the runners but we had no clutch hitting.”

Bobby Ayala (6-5) got the victory in relief of starter Chris Bosio. Norm Charlton earned his 14th save with two innings of hitless relief.

“Norm has done an incredible job for us,” Piniella said. “He’s been our stopper.”

Charlton said, “Our destiny is still ours. We don’t care what the Angels do. The last week has been tough. Nothing has been easy for us. If it was easy a lot of other people would be doing it. This team never dies.

“Winning is what counts. We can win ugly, too.”

Seattle made two errors in the sixth to help Texas to a 3-2 lead. John Marzano singled, moved to second on a sacrifice and took third on an infield single by Otis Nixon. Marzano scored after Ayala threw wild past first trying to pick off Nixon, who went all the way to third and was safe when Mike Blowers dropped the throw.

Jeff Frye beat out an infield single, Nixon held third, and Will Clark followed with a sacrifice fly. Clark had given the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the fifth with a solo homer, his 16th.

Seattle grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth. Dan Wilson led off with a single off Witt’s leg, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a double by Mike Blowers. Coleman then delivered a sharp RBI single to left.

Bosio went five innings and gave up nine hits, getting out of trouble several times. The Rangers loaded the bases but couldn’t score in the first, had two singles but couldn’t convert in the second, had two more singles in a scoreless third and had Mike Pagliarulo thrown out at the plate in the fourth by left-fielder Coleman as he tried to score from second on Benji Gil’s single.

Notes

The Rangers have lost 32 games this year after having a lead. … .. Marzano started at catcher for Texas because Ivan Rodriguez has a strained tendon behind his left knee.