Amaral Puts Hurt On Yanks Mariners Trip New York On 12th-Inning Homer

There is life after Ken Griffey Jr. - life and good baseball.

Without their injured superstar, with their next best power hitter, Jay Buhner, ailing, the Seattle Mariners are not the team they were before Griffey hit the wall last Friday.

But as the New York Yankees and a crowd of 18,948 learned Monday in the Kingdome, there is baseball - tenacious and exciting - left in the Mariners and a manager willing to let them play it.

Coming back from early deficits, the Mariners ran wild on the bases, played solid defense and got near-perfect pitching from unexpected sources, then got a 12thinning home run from Rich Amaral to beat New York 8-7.

Rich Amaral?

“Any home run is fun, but when you hit one to win a game and the whole team is waiting for you at home plate, that’s special,” Amaral said.

And understand - he wasn’t speaking from experience. When was the last time that had happened for Amaral?

“Never,” he said.

Welcome to the new world of Seattle Mariners baseball.

This was a game that was off the board in Las Vegas, with Jack McDowell and his 9-1 career record vs. rookie Rafael Carmona, making the first start of his big-league career 10 days out of Class AA.

As Carmona learned, the Yankees aren’t the Mud Monkeys - pitches that got hit hard in Class AA ball were vaporized by major-league hitters. Though he pitched into the sixth inning, Carmona showed more heart than success.

“We’re going to make a few adjustments, but he’s going to get another chance,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I liked the way he went after their hitters.”

New York jumped to a 2-0, first-inning lead, built it to 4-1 in the fourth inning, 5-1 in the fifth and got its sixth and seventh runs against the kid in the sixth.

Beat him up though they did, the Yankees couldn’t pin a loss on Carmona, and that was because the Mariners kept coming to the rescue. Without Griffey. Mariners/Short-handed, Seattle loosed unconventional warfare. Tino Martinez banged out the fourth triple of his major league career to get one run home. And with Piniella leaving the green light on, four Mariners stole a combined five bases - tying the club single-game record.It might not have been as intimidating as the extra-base hit barrage New York rolled out, but it kept the Mariners close. Marc Newfield had a pair of hits and two RBI, rookie Darren Bragg two hits and an RBI. Mike Blowers came off the bench to toss in a pinch-hit, RBI single, and Edgar Martinez had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run.And in the eighth inning, down by a run, Seattle kept coming.Alex Diaz singled, was bunted to second base by Luis Sojo, then stole third base. With the Yankees’ infield in, Edgar Martinez hit a single that Don Mattingly snared but could do nothing with as Diaz scored to tie the game.”These kids play exciting baseball. They make the game fun, and they play with confidence,” Piniella said. “We can’t replace Junior, we can’t duplicate him, but there are a lot of little things we can do. I like the style of baseball we played tonight. “The key is you can’t just keep knocking on the door, you’ve got to knock it down. We came back, and then we broke through and beat a very good team.”New York had every reason not to believe it had happened, but a team without three key members of its starting lineup piled up 17 hits. And in a game started by a kid they’d never heard of, the Yankees were stymied after the sixth inning by a bullpen they’d been led to believe was suspect.Suspect?Steve Frey had a 9.00 earned run average coming in, then pitched two innings and allowed one hit. Jeff Nelson was reported to be vulnerable to left-handed hitting but shut out New York for another 11/3 innings. Dave Fleming had a 5.93 ERA every point of it earned - yet worked another 11/3 scoreless innings.And when the Yankees got the potential go-ahead run to second base with one out in the 11th inning, Piniella countered with Bobby Ayala, and Ayala got a routine ground ball and a strikeout to end the threat.Then, leading off the 10th inning against former Mariner Scott Bankhead, Amaral went deep. If there was anyone more pleased in the Kingdome that Piniella or his players, it was 4-year-old Beau Amaral.”He always wants me to hit home runs,” Amaral said of his son. “He likes it when they set off the fireworks.”When the fireworks stopped, the Mariners were 17-13 - riding the best 30-game start in franchise history.”This was the kind of game, the kind of baseball, that can bring fans back to the ballpark,” Piniella said. “It’s the kind of baseball we’re going to play. I told these kids tonight - we can win this division playing this kind of baseball.” Without Buhner. Without Joey Cora.

Short-handed, Seattle used unconventional warfare. Tino Martinez banged out the fourth triple of his major-league career to get one run home. And with Piniella leaving the green light on, four Mariners stole a combined five bases - tying the club single-game record.

It might not have been as intimidating as the extra-base hit barrage New York rolled out, but it kept the Mariners close. Marc Newfield had a pair of hits and two RBIs, rookie Darren Bragg two hits and an RBI. Mike Blowers came off the bench to toss in a pinch-hit, RBI single, and Edgar Martinez had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run.

And in the eighth inning, down by a run, Seattle kept coming.

Alex Diaz singled, was bunted to second base by Luis Sojo, then stole third base. With the Yankees’ infield in, Edgar Martinez hit a single that Don Mattingly snared but could do nothing with as Diaz scored to tie the game.

“These kids play exciting baseball. They make the game fun, and they play with confidence,” Piniella said. “We can’t replace Junior, we can’t duplicate him, but there are a lot of little things we can do. I like the style of baseball we played tonight.

“The key is you can’t just keep knocking on the door, you’ve got to knock it down. We came back, and then we broke through and beat a very good team.”

New York had every reason not to believe it had happened, but a team without three key members of its starting lineup piled up 17 hits.

Then, leading off the 12th inning against former Mariner Scott Bankhead, Amaral went deep.

If there was anyone more pleased in the Kingdome that Piniella or his players, it was 4-year-old Beau Amaral.

“He always wants me to hit home runs,” Amaral said of his son. “He likes it when they set off the fireworks.”