Officially Out Of The Race, M’S Finally Pull Out Win
Seattle manager Lou Piniella thanked his players before the game for their efforts this season. Then the Mariners did something they’ve failed to do much recently - win a game.
The Mariners, eliminated from the playoff race in the first inning when Baltimore won at Toronto, got two runs in the 10th to defeat the Oakland Athletics 5-3 Sunday.
“They’ve played hard all year. We’ve had a successful team in many ways,” Piniella said. “We just didn’t play that well the last week of the season.”
The Mariners were knocked out of playoff contention when Baltimore won 3-2 over the Blue Jays to clinch the A.L. wild-card spot. The final out in that game came just 2 minutes after the game started in Oakland.
Seattle, which has gone just 2-5 since getting back into playoff contention with a 10-game winning streak, had been eliminated from the race for the A.L. West title Friday night when it lost 8-1 at Oakland.
“It was just a matter of time until they (Baltimore) won. We had a meeting to set the tone for the next couple of years,” said Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez, who went 0 for 2 but still leads the A.L. with a .360 batting average. “I think we have the makings of a World Series team here.”
Andy Sheets’ RBI double in the 10th inning drove in the go-ahead run.
With one out in the 10th, Joey Cora singled off Mark Acre (1-3) and Sheets followed with his double to left-center to give Seattle a 4-3 lead. Four batters later, Paul Sorrento walked with the bases loaded off Buddy Groom for the Mariners’ fifth run.
The winner was Rafael Carmona (8-3), who pitched one inning. Norm Charlton got two outs for his 20th save.
“For this year to basically be over is very frustrating,” said Seattle’s Chris Bosio. “We took it to the last series of the year. In a lot of people’s minds it was almost an impossible situation to overcome the injuries we’ve had, but we’ve put a lot of scare into some teams.”
Oakland’s Terry Steinbach broke the A.L. record for homers by a catcher in a season. Steinbach’s 35th homer, his 34th as a catcher, surpassed the mark set by Carlton Fisk of the 1985 Chicago White Sox. Steinbach homered as a pinch-hitter May 18 at Boston.
It was also the 100th RBI for Steinbach, who joined Mark McGwire and Geronimo Berroa as the first trio in Oakland history to drive in 100 runs apiece in a season. The Philadelphia A’s did it twice, in 1930 and 1932.
“To get the home run record and the RBI mark at the same time was something special with just one game to go,” Steinbach said. “It happened to work out today all with one swing. It was sort of fairyland.”
Steinbach’s solo shot in the sixth gave Oakland a 3-2 lead, but Mark Whiten tied the game in the seventh with an RBI double.
Whiten also hit a solo homer in the fifth, his 12th of the season, and Ken Griffey Jr. drove in his 140th run with a sacrifice fly in the first.
Ernie Young and Tony Batista had RBI singles for the A’s.
Oakland starter John Wasdin allowed three runs on four hits in seven innings. Wasdin, who is 8-7, had been trying to become the first A’s rookie since 1985 to win more than eight games.
Sterling Hitchcock allowed three runs on eight hits in 7-1/3 innings for Seattle.
Mark McGwire, who leads the majors with 52 homers, went 0 for 4 with a walk.
Notes Rodriguez remained tied with Ernie Banks of the 1958 Chicago Cubs with 379 total bases, the majorleague record by a shortstop. … Batista had two hits to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games. … It was only Seattle’s second win in its last 10 games against Oakland. … Scott Spiezio’s second-inning single gave the A’s 2,530 total bases this season, breaking the franchise record of 2,529 held by the 1932 Philadelphia A’s. … The Mariners are 2-4 on a season-ending road trip to California and Oakland. … Acre has allowed at least one hit in each of his last 12 appearances.