Buhner Blast Wins It Mariners Move Back Atop Wild Card Standings With 7-4 Win Over Twins

Jay Buhner’s bat is smoking.

For the fifth night in a row, Buhner smacked a home run. On Wednesday night, he hit a cannon shot deep into the right-field seats in the eighth inning to lift the Mariners to a wild 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the Kingdome.

Buhner’s three-run blast severed a 4-4 tie and sent the crowd of 16,469 into a fever pitch that could only mean one thing.

Wild card fever.

The Mariners’ victory pushed Seattle ahead of New York into the lead in the race for the American League wild card berth with only 15 games to go. Cleveland beat the Yankees, 5-0.

“He’s just hot at the right time,” said Tino Martinez, “right when we need him. Whatever he’s doing we need to take the next 15 games and ride him out.”

Buhner and Mike Blowers each homered to help the Mariners (67-62) win the series against the Twins (48-78), two games to one.

It marked the 16th game in a row in which the Mariners have homered, setting a new club record.

After the game, Buhner got a pie of shaving cream in his face from Chris Bosio and then was drenched by a bucket of Gatorade by Ken Griffey, Jr.

Buhner had two home runs in the Mariners’ 14-3 victory over the Twins on Tuesday night. He has a team-leading 34 for the season.

“Jay really is hitting the ball well and hitting the ball for power,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. “This is a fantastic series he’s had.”

After the Mariners rallied for four runs in the eighth to take the lead, Norm Charlton struck out the side in the ninth before the raucous crowd to earn his ninth save.

Jeff Nelson (6-3) got the victory after striking out two in one inning of work. He came in for Randy Johnson, who struck out 13 but left the game trailing 4-0.

The Mariners rallied for three runs in the seventh and added four more in the eighth.

Vince Coleman led off the eighth by flying out. Joey Cora then singled to start the rally and stole second base.

After Edgar Martinez walked, Tino Martinez singled off reliever Scott Watkins to right field to score Cora and tie the game at 4-all.

In came reliever Dave Stevens to face Buhner. And Buhner crushed Steven’s second pitch into the right-field seats for the deciding runs.

The Kingdome crowd came to see Johnson do his stuff. But the attention soon shifted to Minnesota rookie Jose Parra.

Parra, who came into the game with a 1-3 record and 7.07 earned-run average, was quietly working on a no-hitter through five innings as the Twins gave him a 4-0 lead.

But Luis Sojo tarnished Parra’s artistry with a leadoff double in the sixth and the masterpiece crumbled in the seventh.

Edgar Martinez led off the seventh with his 47th double of the season, breaking his own club record set in 1992. He then advanced to third on a groundout by Tino Martinez. Buhner then took the first pitch from Parra and slapped a single though the infield score the Mariners’ first run.

Up came Mike Blowers. Down went Parra.

Blowers took a 1-1 offering from Parra and smashed his 21st home run deep into the right-field seats. That cut Minnesota’s lead to 4-3.

Pat Meares led off Minnesota’s fourth with a home run to left field off Johnson, his 11th of the season. But then, Johnson settled down, retiring 12 of his next 14 batters before handing the ball off to the bullpen.

There were some let-ups, but the defense saved him. Ken Griffey, Jr., made a nice running catch of a smash off Scott Leius to prevent an extra base hit in the fourth. Blowers dived to stop a grounder, got up and threw out Richard Becker in the seventh.