Bosox Walk Past Mariners In 10

After flying 4,678 miles in less than 24 hours, Steve Frey’s baggage stayed with him - it was control the left-handed pitcher lost along the way.

Two outs into the 10th inning, Seattle’s newest relief pitcher walked four consecutive Boston hitters to force home the run that made the Red Sox winners in a 5-4 victory in the Kingdome on Tuesday.

The walks by Frey, who flew from San Francisco to Detroit to Seattle in less than a full day before making his first appearance as a Mariner, completed Boston’s comeback from a 4-1, seventh-inning deficit and brought Seattle crashing down to the .500 mark (12-12) after they thought they had this one stashed away.

Three times the Mariners left the bases loaded in the first eight innings, leaving nearly as many on base as were in the stands - where the smallest crowd of the season, 11,868, was enthusiastic but less than half what Seattle had averaged in its first seven home games.

What they saw was all the Mariners had against the first-place Red Sox, with manager Lou Piniella using each of the 14 position players and four pitchers by the time the game got to the 10th inning.

Chris Bosio started and got the game into the seventh with a three-run lead. Bill Risley and Bobby Ayala were set up to close it out - and they hadn’t failed yet this season. The Red Sox changed that, though they did so largely because of the Seattle defense in a bizarre seventh inning.

Coming back from a scare with his right knee, Bosio followed up a five-inning start against Kansas City with a strong effort in which he gave up just one run in his first six innings.

It was the seventh that undid his night, and he couldn’t be blamed for all of it. In truth, it could easily have ended with the Mariners still holding a 4-1 lead. They didn’t, so after two solid games in five days, Bosio has a pair of thank-you-very-much-for-coming-by no decisions.

With one out, Bosio got former teammate Bill Haselman to hit a routine ground ball to third. Doug Strange fielded it easily, but as he stepped into his throw he slipped on the AstroTurf and fell. Haselman was credited with a charitable hit.

One-time replacement player Ron Mahay then grounded a ball just inside the first base line for a double, putting runners on second and third base. That was it for Bosio, replaced by Risley - the 27-year-old who hadn’t allowed a run in his first 12 innings this season.

Risley struck out Luis Alicea for what could have been the third out but wasn’t. Then Troy O’Leary launched a drive to center that Ken Griffey Jr. pursued for half a mile and caught up to at the wall. Griffey the ball and the wall met, and the ball squirted away for a two-run triple.

John Valentin then slapped a line drive toward left field that Strange dove for and caught, though only for an instant. As the ball trickled out of his glove - ruled another single - O’Leary trotted home. It was 4-4.

Gone was a lead built in part on solo home runs by rookie Darren Bragg and rejuvenated cleanup hitter Jay Buhner.

Bosio was not only his old creative self on the mound, changing speeds on a variety of pitches, he made it up as he went along defensively, too. When Ron Mahay hit a tapper toward third base, Bosio came off the mound, back-handed it and - knowing he had no play - flipped to third baseman Strange, who threw Mahay out at first base.

That the Red Sox were able to scramble back to tie was testimony to the tenacity of Aaron Sele, the Poulsbo, Wash., right-hander, who lasted only four innings but limited the damage. Twice he pitched out of bases-loaded jams when the M’s could have broken this one open.

Sele didn’t have his usual control, and in addition to giving up six hits - including those two solo home runs - he walked three batters and hit two others. He burned up 96 pitches in four innings, while Bosio used the same number to get into the seventh.

Notebook

Emerging from a 1-for-21 slump, rookie Bragg has hit safely in three consecutive games and raised his average from .163 to .220… . Though he hasn’t hit particularly well when leading off, Joey Cora has brought Seattle luck. When he is their leadoff hitter, the Mariners are 5-2… . The Red Sox flip-flopped their rotation the next two games, and rookie Vaughn Eshelman will start today, Zane Smith in Thursday’s day game. … Mike Blowers’ season-long slump is mainly due to a struggle against right-handed pitching. Blowers is 6 for 22 (.273) vs. lefties this season - and 0 for 29 against right-handers, including a strikeout with two on in the ninth inning Tuesday… . Griffey Jr. struck out in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, when a fly ball would have won the game. Griffey has five hits in his last 32 atbats.