M’S Slug Out Win Minus Jr. Griffey Injures Hamstring; Edgar Hammers 2 Hrs

After not homering in their past two games - a rather remarkable dry spell for their power-hitting lineup - the Seattle Mariners got back to hitting the big fly in a big way Wednesday.

Seattle batters knocked four balls over the fence and Bob Wolcott turned in his best start of the year on the mound as the Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics 9-4 in front of 27,662 at the Kingdome.

It was the seventh game this season of at least four home runs for Seattle.

The game wasn’t without flaw, though, as Ken Griffey Jr. had to leave in the first inning. Griffey left after his double chased home Rob Ducey for a 1-0 Mariners lead.

Griffey’s right hamstring muscle tightened up a bit about three steps past first base. He left the field with a bit of a wobbly gait but it didn’t appear to be serious and he will be re-evaluated today.

Speculation is that Griffey might have to sit out a couple of games.

The Mariners’ offense didn’t miss him a great deal.

Edgar Martinez, who hit two line drives into the right-field seats, followed Griffey’s double with a rocket at third baseman Scott Brosius. The ball deflected off Brosius’ glove and into the bullpen to score Jose Cruz Jr., who had replaced Griffey.

Paul Sorrento did his best Mark McGwire impersonation in the third inning, ripping a 3-1 Don Wengert pitch into the upper deck in right field. It was a three-run blast and scored Martinez, who had singled, and Jay Buhner, who walked, for a 5-1 lead.

McGwire’s Tuesday homer was the 10th ever to reach the second deck in left field. Sorrento’s was the 61st to reach the upper deck in right. It wasn’t pulled down the line though. It was hit straight away and 464 feet. It was the fourth time Sorrento has driven a ball into the upper deck.

Martinez, who drives the ball as well the opposite way as he does pulling it, lined his 11th home run into the right-field seats to make it 6-1 leading off the fifth. He added a nearly identical solo shot in the seventh. It was his 12th career multi-homer game and second this season.

While Martinez and Sorrento are among the usual suspects when it comes to home runs, the third homer came from an unexpected source.

Backup catcher John Marzano drove a pitch 400 feet over the center-field fence for an 8-1 lead. It was Marzano’s first homer since Sept. 29, 1989, with the Boston Red Sox, a string of 394 at-bats. It was his seventh career homer.

“I felt the monkeys jumping off my back when I got to first base,” said Marzano, who received the shaving cream pie-in-the-face treatment after the game. “When I started slapping high-fives, guys started backing away because I was hitting them so hard.”

For a non-power source, it’s interesting that Marzano’s first major league hit was also a homer, off Texas’ Jose Guzman.

Marzano finished 3 for 4.

Wolcott’s best start ever came at Oakland last year when he put up a statistical anomaly with an 80-pitch, complete game five-hit victory. With a big lead, he was in good enough shape to finish this one off but it was also a good opportunity to get Norm Charlton and Scott Sanders some work.

Wolcott gave up at least one hit in each of the first five innings but was only tagged with a run in the second when George Williams’ sacrifice fly scored Matt Stairs who had doubled.

“The first four innings, I felt horrible,” Wolcott said. “I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the mound. After that, it was great. I had my best stuff.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Mariners 9, Athletics 4 Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. JMcDonald cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .236 Giambi lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .309 Berroa dh 5 0 3 0 0 1 .310 McGwire 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .281 Magadan 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .257 Stairs rf 3 1 2 0 0 1 .358 a-Lennon ph-rf 1 0 1 0 0 0 .333 Spiezio 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .252 GoWilliams c 3 0 0 1 0 2 .244 Brosius 3b 4 2 2 0 0 1 .194 Bournigal ss 4 1 4 3 0 0 .314 Totals 36 4 12 4 1 7 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Ducey lf-cf 5 1 2 0 0 2 .237 Gates 2b 4 0 0 0 1 0 .263 Griffey Jr cf 1 0 1 1 0 0 .316 1-Cruz Jr pr-lf 3 1 0 0 0 2 .226 EMartinez dh 4 3 3 2 0 0 .338 Buhner rf 2 1 0 0 2 0 .236 Sorrento 1b 3 2 2 3 1 0 .279 RDavis 3b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .310 Marzano c 4 1 3 2 0 0 .265 Espinoza ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 .185 Totals 33 9 11 8 4 7

Oakland 010 000 102 4 Seattle 203 030 10x 9 a-singled for Stairs in the 8th. 1-ran for Griffey Jr in the 1st. E-Brosius (8). LOB-Oakland 8, Seattle 5. 2B-Berroa (12), Stairs (7), Bournigal (6), Ducey (5), Griffey Jr (15), Sorrento (10), Marzano (1). HR-Bournigal (1) off SSanders; Marzano (1) off DJohnson; EMartinez 2 (12) off DJohnson, Wengert; Sorrento (12) off Wengert. RBIs-GoWilliams (13), Bournigal 3 (13), Griffey Jr (79), EMartinez 2 (56), Sorrento 3 (35), Marzano 2 (7). S-JMcDonald, Espinoza. SF-GoWilliams. GIDP-Giambi, Cruz Jr, Sorrento. Runners left in scoring position-Oakland 5 (JMcDonald, Giambi, McGwire, Spiezio, GoWilliams); Seattle 2 (Gates, RDavis). Runners moved up-Spiezio, Gates, Buhner. DP-Oakland 2 (Spiezio, Bournigal and McGwire), (Spiezio, Bournigal and McGwire); Seattle 1 (Sorrento, Espinoza and Sorrento).

Oakland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wengert L,3-6 4-1/3 8 7 6 3 4 95 5.20 DJohnson 1-2/3 2 2 2 1 3 33 2.13 Groom 2 1 0 0 0 0 23 4.94 Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wolcott W,4-4 7-2/3 9 2 2 0 5 117 5.34 Charlton 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 6 6.94 SSanders 1 2 2 2 1 2 28 6.95 DJohnson pitched to 2 batters in the 7th. Inherited runners-scored-DJohnson 1-1, Groom 1-0, Charlton 1-0. T-2:33. A-27,662 (59,084).