Mariners win in 12th
SEATTLE – The bodies that sprawled across the infield and the balls ricocheting off arms, legs and the outfield walls were mere preliminaries to what occurred deep into the night Wednesday at Safeco Field.
The Seattle Mariners scored on Yuniesky Betancourt’s bases-loaded single with one out in the 12th inning to beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-7, winning a game so intense that it seemed like the division race is being determined now and not in late September.
The Mariners won two of the three games from the first-place Angels and moved within three games of the lead in the American League West Division.
It took a 12th-inning rally in which the Mariners didn’t get the ball out of the infield to load the bases with one out. Facing right-hander Justin Speier and with center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. standing between first and second base as the Angels played with five infielders and two outfielders, Betancourt hit the ball through the only hole in the defense.
He grounded it between third base and shortstop and into left field, easily scoring Adrian Beltre with the winning run.
The winning hit overcame a rare notch on J.J. Putz’s blown save list.
Putz entered the ninth with a 7-4 lead, then fell victim to the Angels’ second comeback of the game.
They had overcome the Mariners’ early 5-0 lead by making the score 5-4 after Garret Anderson’s two-run homer in the seventh inning, then rocked Putz with four hits and three runs in the ninth.
Gary Matthews Jr. delivered the biggest blow, a two-out, two-run opposite-field homer to left on a pitch that Putz left up and over the plate.
That blow robbed Mariners starter Felix Hernandez of what was becoming one of his most impressive victories of the season, not because of his dominance on the mound but because of his tenacity just to stay in the game.
Hernandez collided hard with first baseman Ben Broussard while chasing Vladimir Guerrero’s high chopper between the mound and first base, and he lay motionless on the field for several seconds.
Hernandez threw several warmup pitches to prove he hadn’t dislodged anything, then went back to dissecting the Angels.
They got to him only twice, in the fourth inning when they scored twice and in the seventh when Garrett Anderson hit a two-run homer.
That blow came shortly after Mariners pitching coach Rafael Chaves and trainer Rick Griffin ran to the mound before the seventh, having seen something in Hernandez’s warmup pitches they didn’t like.
Hernandez intensely shooed them away and, after the homer by Anderson, retired the next six Angels he faced.
Both teams had chances to score in the 10th, the Mariners getting a huge opportunity after Kenji Johjima hit a one-out double. Angels reliever Scot Shields threw a wild pitch that allowed pinch-runner Willie Bloomquist to reach third.
That gave manager John McLaren a chance to be creative with Jose Lopez at the plate, and it blew up on him. Lopez missed a squeeze bunt and Bloomquist was tagged out.