Griffey, Mariners Strike Out With A Chance To Lead In The Wild Card Race, M’S Star Can’t Produce With Game On Line
It came down to six innings of pain and a mouthpiece. It came down to a critical at-bat by a franchise player.
For the Seattle Mariners on Saturday, opportunity presented itself - a victory would have closed ground on the California Angels, and would have put them a game up in the wild card playoff race.
None of that happened, however, because the Mariners’ Achilles Heel - the one-run game - slowed their progress again, as they lost another to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2.
Coming back three days after taking a sharp ground ball off his chin, Bosio pitched for the first time in his nine-year major-league career with a mouthpiece that made it hard to breath, but didn’t dull the impact of one of his 116 pitches.
“Every time I came down there was pain; it was like a whiplash effect, and eventually I wasn’t finishing off my pitches the way I should,” Bosio said.
Matched against Kevin Brown, who had a perfect game through four innings, Bosio kept Baltimore off the scoreboard despite walking five men over that span. And when Edgar Martinez hit his 26th home run opening the fifth inning, Seattle was ahead, 1-0.
The Orioles tied it in their half of the inning, pushing home a run on Bobby Bonilla’s doubleplay ground ball.
“He’d walked some guys but he was missing close, not missing by a lot,” Piniella said. “The mouthpiece bothered him. He couldn’t catch his breath and there was a lot of discomfort, but he was pitching well.”Two outs into the sixth inning, Bosio intention ally walked Brady Anderson to get to infielder Jeff Huson with the bases loaded.
“I didn’t strike out a man all night. My game is making them put the ball in play, so I wanted a ground ball there,” Bosio said. “I took something off that pitch - I was taking more and more off the ball as the game went on - and I got my ground ball. When that ball got through, my heart just sank. Joey Cora made a hell of a try, but it just got through.”
Second baseman Cora dove, but Huson’s ground ball got by an into center field for a two-run single, and Baltimore went ahead, 3-1.
Bill Risley, who’d rejoined the team hours earlier after missing seven games to be with his injured daughter, pitched a perfect seventh inning in relief, and the Mariners tried to come back.
In an inning filled with pinch-hitters, pinch-runners and pitching changes, the Mariners pushed home one run on Doug Strange’s ground ball fielder’s choice and then brought Ken Griffey Jr. to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs to face left-handed veteran Jesse Orosco.
Junior worked ahead in the count, 3-1, then swung at and missed two consecutive Orosco fastballs.
“I thought his bat was a little slow,” said Orosco, who “No comment,” Griffey said, but when he left the clubhouse, the left wrist he shattered back in May was heavily taped.started the ninth inning and walked Edgar Martinez on four pitches, then got a double-play ground ball from Tino Martinez - and was replaced by Doug Jones. Jay Buhner flared a single into center field and manager Lou Piniella went to his bench again, using Greg Pirkl as a pinch-hitter.
Representing the go-ahead run, Pirkl struck out.
For the M’s, the loss was their 13th in 16 one-run decisions since the All-Star break.