Negatives Weigh Down M’S Kansas City Turns Back Seattle On 11th-Inning Homer By Davis

Ken Griffey stood in front of his locker late Sunday afternoon answering questions about hitting home runs.

The subject didn’t hit home.

“Everyone wants to talk about home runs, but the only thing on my mind right now is we lost,” he said. “I keep wondering what we can do to change it.”

Hitting home runs obviously isn’t enough.

The Mariners’ center fielder hit his 22nd of the season in the first inning at Kauffman Stadium, but Chili Davis’s blast off Bobby Ayala in the bottom of the 11th powered the Kansas City Royals to a 4-3 victory.

While Griffey goes in one direction, the team is heading in the other. The Mariners lost for the eighth time in the past 10 games despite two more hits from red-hot Joey Cora, a quality start from Jeff Fassero and a game-tying pinch-hit homer from Brent Gates in the ninth inning off Royals reliever Jeff Montgomery.

“I’m not disappointed that I didn’t the win because we won the game,” Royals starter Glendon Rusch said. “As the fourth or fifth starter, my job is to keep the team in the game for as long as I can. No one expects me to go out and pitch eight or nine innings.”

He entered the eighth working on a four-hit gem and retired Griffey on a foul popup to third, before being replaced by Montgomery.

“I challenged Junior in the first inning and he got me,” Rusch said, “but I wanted to keep going after him. Getting him in the eighth inning allowed me to take a deep breath and relax.”

The Mariners, meanwhile, keep struggling. Matching offense with defense and pitching in the same game has been a problem for nearly two weeks.

“We got some good pitching from Jeff and didn’t take advantage of it,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We also had (scoring) opportunities and didn’t get them in.”

“When we pitch well, we don’t score and when we score, we don’t pitch well,” Fassero said. “As soon as we get it locked in - pitching well and scoring runs at the same time - then we’ll win some games.”

What will it take for that to happen? Griffey is willing to try almost anything.

“How do you like this week’s worth of growth,” he said, sticking out his chin to show off his longer-than-normal whiskers.

That isn’t working either, but Griffey is keeping his chin up.

“Teams go through times like this,” he said. “Would you rather have something like this happen in August and September, or now? Let’s get it over with and then tear up the league from here on out.”

Piniella revamped his lineup for Sunday’s series finale and the one move that backfired was putting Griffey in the designated hitter spot.

That removed a Gold Glove from the defense and, sure enough, a ball Griffey probably would have caught helped the Royals pull even in the sixth inning.

After Fassero walked Jay Bell leading off, Jeff King scorched a line drive to straightaway center. Rich Amaral broke late, turned the wrong way and was unable to make the catch. The ground-rule double put runners on second and third with none out and a one-out grounder to short tied the game at 2-2.

“Junior is the best center fielder in baseball,” Piniella said, “and that was a tough play for anyone. It was not an easy play, I’ll tell you that.”

Unfortunately for the Mariners, Griffey’s first “day off” came in a game when his glove was needed.

“He has played (center field) every game and we have to give everyone a rest every once in a while,” Piniella said. “The best way to do it is put Junior in the DH spot. It keeps his bat in the lineup and rests his legs a little bit.”

Fassero eluded further damage in that inning, but ran into another predicament in the next, when Mike Sweeney and Tom Goodwin reached base on back-to-back singles.

The Mariners, expecting Jose Offerman to bunt, were in position to get the force out at third base. Offerman placed a bunt that Fassero fielded.

“I was yelling, ‘Third! Third!”’ catcher John Marzano said, “but he didn’t hear me.”

Fassero looked at third, but turned and threw to first base. Bip Roberts then hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the go-ahead run and it stood up until Gates batted for Mike Blowers in the ninth.

Fassero pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth before turning the game over to the Mariners’ recently-battered bullpen.

After a relatively easy 10th inning, Ayala threw a strike to Davis leading off the 11th. Then he threw another.

The resounding thud indicated that the game was over.

Davis loped to first base, enjoying the moment.

“The ball was in the air and I knew that unless there was a tornado or something, it was not coming back in the park,” he said.

Royals 4, Mariners 3, (11) Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Amaral cf-lf 6 0 0 0 0 0 .282

ARodriguez ss 5 0 0 0 0 1 .311

Griffey Jr dh 4 1 1 1 1 1 .333

EMartinez 1b 5 0 2 0 0 0 .322

Buhner rf 2 1 0 0 3 1 .218

Blowers lf 3 0 1 0 0 1 .236

a-Gates ph-3b 2 1 1 1 0 0 .255

RDavis 3b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .277

b-Sorrento ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .287

Ducey cf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .224

Marzano c 2 0 0 0 1 1 .250

c-DaWilson ph-c 2 0 1 0 0 0 .308

Cora 2b 3 0 2 1 2 0 .372

Totals 39 3 8 3 7 6 Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Offerman 2b 4 0 3 1 0 0 .289

Roberts lf 4 0 1 1 0 0 .350

JBell ss 4 1 0 0 1 0 .314

King 1b 5 0 3 0 0 1 .234

CDavis dh 5 1 1 1 0 1 .298

Vitiello rf 3 0 0 1 0 0 .280

DHoward rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .286

Paquette 3b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .211

MiSweeney c 3 0 1 0 0 2 .243

1-Halter pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 .313

Spehr c 0 0 0 0 0 0 .171

d-Macfarlane phc 1 0 0 0 0 0 .123

TGoodwin cf 4 0 3 0 0 0 .261

Totals 38 4 13 4 1 5 Seattle 100 100 001 00 - 3 Kansas City 000 011 100 01 - 4

No outs when winning run scored.

a-homered for Blowers in the 9th. b-struck out for R.Davis in the 9th. c-singled for Marzano in the 9th. d-popped out for Spehr in the 9th.

1-ran for Sweeney in the 7th.

LOB-Seattle 10, Kansas City 7. 2B-EMartinez (14), King (9). HR-CDavis (6) off Ayala; Gates (2) off JMontgomery; Griffey Jr (22) off Rusch. RBIs-Griffey Jr (59), Gates (7), Cora (21), Offerman (15), Roberts (19), CDavis (22), Vitiello (12). CS-Offerman (4), King (2). S-Offerman. SF-Roberts. GIDP-Gates, CDavis.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 2 (ARodriguez, Blowers); Kansas City 4 (Roberts 2, JBell, Paquette).

Runners moved up-Amaral, Blowers, Vitiello.

DP-Seattle 2 (RDavis, Cora and EMartinez), (Marzano and Cora); Kansas City 1 (JBell, Offerman and King).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Fassero 9 11 3 3 1 4 117 4.04

Ayala L, 3-2 1 2 1 1 0 1 23 5.72

Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Rusch 7-1/3 4 2 2 5 4 109 5.11

JMontgomery 1-2/3 2 1 1 1 2 22 8.22

Pichardo 1 1 0 0 1 0 15 1.57

JWalker W, 3-2 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 7.71

Ayala pitched to 1 batter in the 11th.

T-3:03. A-22,733 (40,625).