Mariners Let One Get Away Indians Rally In 9th As Seattle Fans Boo

One out from a victory that would have pulled them to within one game of first place in the American League West, Seattle lost to Cleveland Wednesday - the kind of development that leaves a team angry and disgusted.

Worse, the Indians didn’t win with their bats, they won because of the Mariners’ pitching and defense.

After three Seattle errors had helped produce the first two Cleveland runs in the fourth inning, Norm Charlton’s fifth blown save - assisted by a Joey Cora throwing error that allowed the winning run to scramble home - sent the Mariners to a 5-4 defeat.

They paid for it in pride, when they had to listen to a crowd of 30,431 boo as it left the Kingdome, but it cost them in the standings, too.

That crowd had seen Jamie Moyer depart after seven innings, six outs from winning his second game in as many starts as a Mariner, surviving a defensive stumble in the Indians fourth inning. And it watched Seattle’s 1-2 bullpen punch - Mike Jackson and Norm Charlton - come close to slamming the door on Cleveland over the final two innings.

Yet on a night when Alex Rodriguez hit a long home run, Jay Buhner broke a seventh-inning tie with a clutch single and Dan Wilson tacked on an insurance run with an eighth-inning homer, this game got away at the last possible instant.

Two outs into the ninth inning, up by a run, Charlton gave up a home run to former Mariners shortstop Omar Vizquel - his eighth of the year - and then watched the inning and the game unravel.

Kenny Lofton grounded a two-strike single into right field and then Jose Vizcaino doubled into right field with Lofton running, forging a 4-4 tie. Charlton got an infield chopper from Mark Carreon, but when Cora bare-handed the ball and threw low to first base, Vizcaino scored all the way from second base to push the Indian ahead.

So much was wasted in defeat - including the chance to gain ground on Texas - that the play that helped put Seattle ahead may have gone overlooked.

Ken Griffey Jr. has won games in most ways games can be won - with home runs and great catches, strong throws and that memorable sprint last October from first base to the plate.

In considerable pain Wednesday night, Griffey helped the Mariners seize a lead in the least probably manner, by dropping a sacrifice bunt, his first in five years and 603 games.

Bunting on his own, moving teammates into scoring position, Griffey was on the bench a moment later when Buhner grounded an RBI single into left field, breaking a seventh-inning tie and putting the Mariners ahead 3-2.

When Wilson homered in the eighth inning, tying Dave Valle’s club record for RBIs by a catcher with his 64th of the season, the Mariners looked to have this one locked away.

And Griffey’s bunt might have been the smartest play of the night.

Why? Because Griffey’s right hand, broken in mid-June, still bites him when he swings and misses certain pitches. And in the fifth inning, he swung, missed and lost his bat, which sailed more than 100 feet down the first base line.

For the remainder of the night, Griffey winced in the outfield when making a catch with that right hand.

So on his own, he dropped a bunt and moved both runners into scoring position.

Buhner followed with a far more dramatic hit, but Griffey’s bunt was both a heads-up effort and the only way he figured to make a positive contribution at-bat.