Blowers’ Errors In Ninth Beat M’S

Seattle manager Lou Piniella paced around his cramped room in the clubhouse, furious at the way his Mariners had thrown away another game.

Consecutive throwing errors by third baseman Mike Blowers allowed Oakland to score twice in the bottom of the ninth Thursday night as the Athletics rallied to beat the Mariners 3-2.

“In close ballgames, if you can’t play defense you don’t win them, period,” Piniella fumed. “The last two ballgames we’ve lost, we’ve given them away, given them away. You just get tired of saying it over and over and over again.”

With one out, Blowers backhanded a smash by Craig Paquette, but threw it past first baseman Tino Martinez. The next batter, Stan Javier, hit a ball to Blowers’ left, and he again threw it past Martinez, allowing Paquette to score and Javier to reach third.

With two outs, Scott Brosius lined a single off Norm Charlton (2-6) to left to drive in the winning run.

“The first one, I was just down the line and deep and felt I needed to get up and throw it quick and I just threw it low,” Blowers said. “The second one I couldn’t get a grip on it and I threw a spit ball over there.”

Rick Honeycutt (5-1) got one out for the win.

Brosius, normally a third baseman who was playing first Thursday because of Oakland injuries, said Blowers made great plays just to stop the balls.

“He made two tough plays and almost shut down the inning, but instead it opened up the inning,” Brosius said. “Those were two good plays for a third baseman to make, and he’s got the cannon to make that type of play.”

The Mariners, second-worst in the American League with 81 errors this season, also blew a game in the ninth inning on Tuesday - they allowed five unearned runs as the Minnesota Twins rallied from a 6-2 deficit to defeat Seattle.

Oakland’s comeback spoiled a strong outing by Seattle starter Tim Belcher, who allowed one run in seven innings before giving way to Charlton.

Belcher, helped by a couple of Oakland running mistakes, allowed only a sacrifice fly by Paquette in the sixth. He gave up six hits, including three in a row in the sixth.

Ken Griffey Jr. drove in his first run since coming off the disabled list, going 1 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts in his third game since returning.

He got an RBI groundout in the third after Joey Cora led off with a triple. Griffey, who broke his left wrist May 26 when he slammed into the center-field wall in Seattle, is 3 for 11 since his return.

Edgar Martinez hit his careerhigh 19th homer for Seattle leading off the sixth. Martinez, the American League’s leading hitter, went 1 for 2 with three walks to raise his average a point to .359.

Before their defensive problems in the ninth, the Mariners made some good plays in the field.

Seattle left fielder Vince Coleman threw out a runner at the plate in the fifth. Javier tried to score from second on Jose Herrera’s two-out single, but was out by two steps.

In the sixth, a potential big inning by the Athletics was ruined when Brent Gates was thrown out at third by about 5 feet on the front end of a double steal with nobody out.

Todd Van Poppel allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings for Oakland. Four A’s hurlers allowed eight walks and threw 199 pitches.