Blowers’ Grand Slam Does It Again Third Baseman Makes Up For Previous Night With Seven Rbis In 9-3 Win Over Boston, Wakefield

Seattle’s Mike Blowers had throwing errors, not home runs, on his mind when he showed up in the Kingdome to play against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.

“I’ve been playing pretty well until the ninth inning of last night’s game,” Blowers said. “I just wanted to bounce back and have a good game.”

Facing knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, the ace of the Red Sox staff, Blowers hit his third grand slam of the month and added a three-run homer in a 9-3 Mariners’ victory.

Blowers’ seven RBIs allowed him to redeem himself for two throwing errors in the ninth inning Thursday that led to a 3-2 loss to Oakland.

“You play well and then you have one bad night,” Blowers said. “I was beating my brains out quite a bit. For me to throw the ball away, it’s not like me to do that.”

Blowers’ three grand slams in 15 days - he hit one off California’s Mike Butcher on Aug. 3 and another off Minnesota’s Pat Mahomes on Monday - tied a major-league record for most grand slams in a month.

He hit a fastball for his grand slam and a knuckleball for his second homer.

“I know all the pressure is on the pitcher when the bases are loaded,” Blowers said. “I know if I’m patient, I’m going to get a good pitch to hit.”

Wakefield (14-2) had a personal 10-game winning streak broken and went only three innings in his shortest stint of the season. He gave up seven runs on four hits and four walks. Only 35 of his 75 pitches were strikes.

“I just kind of stunk tonight,” Wakefield said after his worst outing of the season. “It was one of those nights when nothing felt good and I wasn’t making good pitches.”

Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy was expecting Wakefield to pitch poorly at least once this season.

“He is human,” Kennedy said. “There’s not much more you can say. He’s given us an awful lot this year.”

Bob Wolcott (1-0), a 21-year-old right-hander brought up from Class AAA Tacoma before the game, worked five innings to win his major-league debut. He gave up two runs on seven hits and five walks.

Wolcott found out late Thursday afternoon that he was coming to Seattle.

“I was pretty relaxed,” he said. “Well, in the first inning, I had some jitters. But I calmed down.”

It was just the second loss in 16 games for the A.L. East-leading Red Sox, but it also was Boston’s third loss in four games at the Kingdome this year.

“It was their night tonight,” Kennedy said of the Mariners.

Blowers gave Seattle a 4-0 lead in the first with a 409-foot shot over the center-field fence. His 17th homer came after Wakefield loaded the bases on walks to Vince Coleman, Edgar Martinez and Tino Martinez.

Blowers made it 7-1 in the third with his 18th homer, a 395-foot drive to center after a walk to Edgar Martinez and Tino Martinez’s single.

The other major-league players to hit three grand slams in a month were Rudy York of Detroit in 1938, Jim Northrup of Detroit in ‘68, Larry Parrish of Texas in ‘82 and Eric Davis of Cincinnati in ‘87.

Blowers has driven in 31 of his 81 RBIs in his last 15 games and now has six career grand slams. He also had three grand slams in ‘93.

Wakefield lost for the first time since June 14 at Toronto, 5-3. His ERA went from 1.65 to 2.08 - still the best in the American League. His previous shortest performance this season was five innings in a no-decision June 19 at Cleveland.

Edgar Martinez had an RBI single in the fourth and Luis Sojo drove in a run with a single in the seventh.

Mike Greenwell singled in a run in the third, Mike Macfarlane had a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Chris Donnels had an RBI single in the ninth for Boston.

Notes

Wakefield has given up 14 homers this year, most on the Red Sox staff. … The Mariners announced right-hander Jim Converse was claimed on waivers Friday by Kansas City as compensation for Tuesday’s acquisition of Coleman. Converse was 4-7 with a 5.99 ERA in 17 games, including 12 starts, at Tacoma. … Blowers’ third grand slam of the season tied Boston’s Mo Vaughn for the most in the majors this season.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: A.L. WILD CARD RACE W L Pct. GB Texas 54 50 .519 - New York 53 50 .515 1/2 Seattle 53 51 .510 1 Milwaukee 52 51 .505 1 Kansas City 50 51 .495 2 Oakland 49 57 .462 6 Baltimore 48 56 .462 6 Detroit 45 59 .433 9