Mariners Take Fight From N.Y. Seattle Whips Yankees, 10-2, In Game Interrupted By Brawl
The rivalry developing between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees has provided enough entertaining baseball to equal any other matchup in the majors over the past two years.
Wednesday night, in a 10-2 Mariners win, the intensity reached yet another height.
Capitalizing on Dwight Gooden’s poor pitching, the Seattle Mariners moved out to an 8-1 lead in the sixth inning.
In the eighth, Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill, as frustrated as anybody in New York about the Mariners’ dominance of the Yankees since last season, had enough.
When he was brushed back by a Tim Davis pitch, O’Neill didn’t like it, sat in the dirt for the second and then prompted Mariners catcher John Marzano to shove him starting an ugly, two-part brawl that resulted in six players being ejected.
It only got worse for New York as Alex Rodriguez spanked a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to seal the Seattle win.
“That was a bit of a wild one,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. “That’s part of baseball. Sometimes that brings a team together pretty good. I think the Yankees think the same thing.”
The fight marred a four-home run outburst by Seattle that allowed the Mariners to get within a game of Baltimore in the race for the American League wild-card playoff spot.
Texas also lost allowing Seattle to move to 5-1/2 back in the A.L. West.
Just as Seattle used a series against the Yankees as a catalyst to last season’s A.L. West championship drive, the Mariners took only positives out of their sweep of the Yankees.
“That was a good way to open up a homestand,” Piniella said.
Although they scored 10 runs, Seattle had trouble early on, stranding seven base runners in the first five innings.
Joey Cora’s single started a four-run sixth which finally drove Gooden from the game. Cora eventually scored on a sacrifice fly from Edgar Martinez. With Rodriguez, who stretched his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games, and Griffey on base, Jay Buhner wiped the bases clean with a blast that reached the walkway in front of the center field seats, 442 feet away.
The 0-2 drive gave Seattle an 8-1 lead and Buhner 121 runs batted in, tying the Mariners’ single-season record he set last season.
Gooden was finally chased having thrown 122 pitches in 5-2/3 innings, only 57 strikes.
His counterpart, Terry Mulholland, was the benefactor of two double plays and good pitching in a few tight situations. He gave up nine hits but just one run over seven innings.
A calm seventh preceded the stormy eighth.
The first pitch of the eighth inning drove the Yankees frustrations out of control as the fists flew between O’Neill and Marzano. Both benches emptied around home plate and the episode seemed to be simmering when the 30,952 began chanting “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep.” O’Neill and Darryl Strawberry weren’t ready to return to the benches, and quickly found Mariners ready to rumble again. The mob got much more violent this time with Strawberry battling Chris Bosio and Bobby Ayala in the middle of a pile that ran up against the backstop.
The aftermath saw O’Neill, Strawberry, Bosio, Ayala and Marzano thrown out of the game and the return of “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” Jeff Nelson then hit Cora to lead off the eighth and was sent to join Strawberry and O’Neill.
Niehaus hospitalized
Dave Niehaus, the radio voice of the Seattle Mariners, was stricken with chest pains just after arriving at the Kingdome several hours before the game Wednesday.
Niehaus was taken to a local hospital and administered an electrocardiogram that read normal.
He was to remain in the hospital overnight for observation.
Rich Waltz replaced Niehaus in the broadcast booth for the game.
McCarthy replaces Johnson
Randy Johnson was officially put on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday. Taking his spot on the roster is left-handed reliever Greg McCarthy, who made 39 relief appearances for Tacoma, posting a 4-2 record with four saves. The 27-year-old has spent 10 years in the minor leagues.
Spokane boy sets mark
A single-season attendance record was set in the Kingdome on Wednesday. The record-breaking fan was Mike Sturm, a 12-year-old from Spokane attending his first Mariners game as a birthday present with his aunt and uncle.
The crowd of 30,952 pushed the Mariners’ home attendance to a single-season record 2,178,857, breaking the 1991 record of 2,147,905. The Mariners have 14 home dates left. The ticket office as of Wednesday morning had sold 339,659 tickets for the remainder of the season, meaning the season total could reach 2,500,000. Sturm received a cap, jacket and trip to Phoenix from the M’s and also got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.