Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ayala Cures Royals’ Ills Mariners Bullpen Continues To Lose When Opportunity Calls

Associated Press

The Kansas City Royals seemed doomed to another defeat. That is, until Seattle’s struggling relievers took over.

The Royals ended their team-record 12-game road losing streak, rallying for five runs in the eighth inning and four more in the ninth Saturday night to beat the Mariners 9-6.

The Royals won for just the second time in their last 18 games overall. Kansas City was 1-46 when trailing after eight innings until overcoming a 6-0 deficit with only five outs remaining.

“It’s great to win,” Kansas City manager Tony Muser said. “We’ve battled back to within one run a number of times and couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

Craig Paquette had a pinch-hit, two-run double in the eighth and put Kansas City ahead for good with a run-scoring single in the ninth.

Bobby Ayala (6-4) was the loser, pitching the ninth and absorbing the Mariners’ 14th blown save of the season. Seattle has lost five games it led going into the ninth inning this year.

“We’ve got to figure out how to win games like this,” said Alex Rodriguez, who homered for the Mariners.

Omar Olivares, in his Mariners debut, and Norm Charlton also failed to hold a lead Seattle built behind Bob Wolcott.

Jeff Montgomery (1-3) pitched two perfect innings for the win.

“To come back for a win the way we did tonight is a real pick-me-up,” Montgomery said. “It was highly needed for us at this time.”

Wolcott took a two-hitter and 6-0 lead into the eighth, but left with one out after Goodwin hit an inside-the-park home run and Jay Bell followed with a homer.

Olivares, acquired a day earlier in a trade with Detroit, relieved Wolcott and walked the only two batters he faced.

Charlton took over with his 7.89 ERA, and Paquette met him with a two-run, pinch-hit double and Mike Sweeney hit an RBI single with two outs that made it 6-5. Ayala struck out David Howard to end the inning.

The Royals completed their comeback in the ninth when Jeff King hit a tying sacrifice fly in the ninth, Paquette followed with an RBI single and Shane Halter had a two-run double.

Rodriguez hit a two-run homer, his 14th, in the third inning off Glendon Rusch. Russ Davis and Joey Cora, who had three hits, had RBI singles in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.

Jay Buhner hit his 25th home run in the fifth and Rodriguez singled home a run in the sixth.

Notes

Mariners center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. made a throw from the warning track that cut down Bell at second base in the first inning. Bell was trying to tag up on a fly ball.

Griffey has gone 10 games without homering, tying his longest homerless drought of the season.

Kansas City pitcher Jose Rosado, who did not play Saturday, was ejected by home-plate umpire Rich Garcia in the sixth inning for complaining about balls and strikes from the bench.

Bell tied the club record for RBIs by a shortstop of 60 set by Fred Patek in 1977.

Mariners coach Lee Elia is expected to return to his job in the next few weeks after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer.

Quotable

Mariners second baseman Joey Cora, denying he’s using a corked bat, a speculation that started because he has hit nine home runs: “I’d have to be crazy or unethical to do that. I can be crazy at times, but I’m not unethical.”

Royals 9, Mariners 6

Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Roberts lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .338 TGoodwin cf 5 2 2 1 0 1 .272 JBell ss 3 2 2 1 1 0 .281 CDavis dh 2 1 0 0 3 0 .306 1-RLong pr-dh 0 1 0 0 0 0 .200 King 1b 2 1 0 1 2 0 .245 Cooper 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .214 a-Paquette ph-3b 2 2 2 3 0 0 .229 Damon rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .301 b-Halter ph-rf 2 0 1 2 0 1 .273 MiSweeney c 5 0 1 1 0 0 .242 DHoward 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .245 Totals 35 9 10 9 7 3

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 5 1 3 1 0 1 .335 ARodriguez ss 5 1 2 3 0 0 .307 Griffey Jr cf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .299 EMartinez dh 4 0 0 0 1 1 .332 Buhner rf 5 2 2 1 0 2 .249 DaWilson c 3 1 0 0 1 2 .288 Blowers 1b 3 0 1 0 0 1 .277 RDavis 3b 4 0 2 1 0 1 .311 Amaral lf 3 1 1 0 0 1 .261 c-Ducey ph-lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .274 Totals 37 6 11 6 3 10

Kansas City 000 000 054 9

Seattle 002 211 000 6

a-doubled for Cooper in the 8th. b-struck out for Damon in the 8th. c-struck out for Amaral in the 8th.

1-ran for Davis in the 9th.

LOB-Kansas City 8, Seattle 8. 2B-Paquette (15), Halter (1), DHoward (7). HR-JBell (14) off Wolcott; TGoodwin (2) off Wolcott; Buhner (25) off Rusch; ARodriguez (14) off Rusch.

RBIs-TGoodwin (20), JBell (60), King (63), Paquette 3 (33), Halter 2 (4), MiSweeney (16), Cora (40), ARodriguez 3 (47), Buhner (72), RDavis (50). S-Blowers. SF-King.

Runners left in scoring position-Kansas City 2 (Roberts, MiSweeney); Seattle 3 (ARodriguez, Griffey Jr, RDavis).

Runners moved up-CDavis.

DP-Seattle 1 (Griffey Jr and Cora).

Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Rusch 5-2/3 9 6 6 2 4 106 5.67 MiPerez 1 2 0 0 1 2 29 5.14 Carrasco 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 5 3.00 JMontgomry W,1-3 2 0 0 0 0 3 23 6.12

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wolcott 7-1/3 4 2 2 4 1 116 5.02 Olivares 0 0 2 2 2 0 9 4.85 Charlton 1/3 2 1 1 0 1 14 8.04 Ayala L,6-4 1-1/3 4 4 4 1 1 28 5.04

Olivares pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-MiPerez 2-1, Carrasco 2-0, Charlton 2-2, Ayala 1-0.

HBP-by Wolcott (JBell).

T-3:12. A-49,776 (59,084).