Royals Sink M’S In 14th K.C. Strands 23, Wins 3-2 On Home Run By Rookie Nunnally

Gene Mauch once said that if a team could trade the runs it scored for half the runners it left on base it could win the pennant most years.

In more than 42 years of professional baseball, the venerable Royals coach would have had difficulty finding a better one-game example of that theory than on Thursday, when the Kansas City Royals left 23 runners on base - then beat the Seattle Mariners in the 14th inning with a solo home run from rookie Jon Nunnally.

“We were probably fortunate to be in it as long as we were,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said.

No kidding.

In 14 innings, Seattle left three men on base - only one after the second inning - as Royals pitchers Kevin Appier, Rusty Meacham, Jeff Montgomery and Billy Brewer checked them on seven hits.

The Mariners, meanwhile, gave up 16 hits, nine walks and put runners on base via an error, a passed ball on a third strike and catchers interference. So why did the game last 4 hours, 36 minutes?

“I honestly thought we were going to break it open every inning,” Royals manager Bob Boone said. “It just kept going.”

Appier pitched nine innings and came away with no decision, which must have seemed impossible to him. Granted, he gave up two Seattle runs, but the Royals spent the entire night putting men on base - at least one in eight of Appier’s nine innings - and only got two of them home in regulation.

No failed rally was more inexplicable than the Kansas City sixth inning. With Lee Guetterman on in relief, catcher Brent Mayne doubled and the next batter, Michael Tucker, blooped a single into right center field. As Mayne rounded third base, coach Jeff Cox held him.

And in right-center field, Ken Griffey Jr. slipped on the wet turf and landed hard on his rear. When he scrambled to his feet, Mayne was still on third. Guetterman and rookie Rafael Carmona pitched out of the jam.

It was that kind of night for the Royals, who had 11 hits - and stranded 14 runners - before the game went into extra innings. The irony was one of those hits was a solo home run by Gary Gaetti, and the Royals’ other run was manufactured after Bob Hamelin reached first base on a catchers interference call.

The Mariners, meanwhile, rewarded their tenacious pitching with little attack. Tino Martinez, 0 for 14 against Appier entering the game, doubled and scored in the second inning on Luis Sojo’s two-out triple.

Two innings later, Martinez hit his third home run, and Seattle led, 2-0.

Griffey, meanwhile, singled in the 12th inning, his only hit in 12 at-bats in this series.

Chris Bosio, pitching for the first time in eight days after being sidelined with a tender right knee, gave up six hits in five innings but allowed only one run - unearned. He left after the fifth inning when the knee stiffened after 63 pitches.

Big Unit cleared

The stiffness that forced Randy Johnson out of Wednesday’s rain-delayed game won’t push back his next start. In fact, Johnson will be given his choice - he can pitch on his normal rotation, Monday in Detroit, or come back a day early and face Minnesota on Sunday. “It’s his call,” Piniella said.