A’S Shock Seattle, 7-5 After Six Flawless Innings, Mariners Find Way To Blow It

Against the hated Oakland Athletics, the Seattle Mariners at last had a game in hand.

A three-run lead in the seventh inning with Randy Johnson pitching, the Mariners had already chased nemesis Dave Stewart, who’d beaten them 20 times in his career.

They had built a 5-2 lead on power and precision, played well defensively and let Johnson rip through a team that had beaten Seattle 29 of the 37 times.

And it wasn’t enough. None of it.

Rallying for three runs to tie in the seventh inning, Oakland rode a pair of eighth-inning home runs to a 7-5 victory that left Seattle stunned - and more than 5,000 goateed fans heading for their razors.

On Bobby Ayala Goatee Night, 5,586 folks showed up with the homely little beards, some of them painted on, to join a paying crowd of 15,165. For those who’d come to root for Seattle, there were six wonderful innings.

They watched Jay Buhner hit a two-run home run. They watched strategy work when manager Lou Piniella asked his players to lay down a pair of sacrifice bunts - Dan Wilson and Mike Blowers got the job done - and saw both those plays lead to runs.

Rich Amaral threw baserunner Terry Steinbach out at the plate. Catcher Wilson was credited with catching Rickey Henderson trying to steal third, although in truth Henderson was safe and umpire Jim McKean badly missed the call.

Johnson had leads of 3-0 and 5-2, then handed that last one over to Bill Risley in the seventh inning. Risley left with the game tied at 5. Jeff Nelson came in to work the eighth inning and gave up a pair of massive home runs - just the second and third he’d allowed in 32 2/3 innings this season.

It was a game in which the Mariners did most everything right for six innings, nearly everything wrong thereafter and lost a game they badly needed to win.

That it came against Oakland was hardly surprising. The Athletics are 5-0 against Seattle this year, and lead the all-time series 151-80.

Making his fourth start since Seattle went to the four-man rotation, Johnson didn’t have his terminal velocity - just four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, but pitched well enough to win his ninth game.

Presented with early leads of 2-0, then 3-0, he gave up McGwire’s 20th home run, in the fourth inning, then held Oakland off until the seventh. There, tiring, he ran out of gas and luck at the same time.

Craig Paquette pounded a high hopper off the plate to lead off the seventh, beating out the one-hop, 60-foot single. Johnson struck out Stan Javier, hit Scott Brosius with a pitch and then watched Mike Bordick load the bases by beating out another infield single.

Clinging to a three-run lead with the bases loaded and one out, Piniella went to his bullpen. Johnson, coming off games in which he’d thrown 122, 126 and 135 pitches, threw 99 Wednesday and was done.

Right-hander Risley, a strikeout pitcher - he had 34 of them in his first 25 innings pitched - came in to face Rickey Henderson. Henderson singled home one run to make it 5-3 and keep the bases loaded.

Risley jumped ahead in the count to Geronimo Berroa, then gave up another single, this one a two-run shot that tied the score and tagged Johnson with all five runs.

The Mariners then got a huge break when Henderson tried to steal second, made it by an arms length with a head-first slide and was still called out by umpire McKean. When Henderson jumped up and screamed his objection, McKean not only ejected him, he put both hands on Henderson’s chest and pushed him away before doing it.

That helped Risley get out of the inning with the game tied, but that wasn’t what he’d been asked to do.

Then came Nelson and the eighth inning. The big right-hander came in bearing fabulous numbers - a 3-0 record and a 1.14 earned run average - and immediately gave up McGwire’s 21st home run. Two outs later, he gave up Javier’s third.