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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A’S Wallop Charlton In 9th For 11-6 Victory

From Wire Reports

Scott Brosius hit a two-run single and Terry Steinbach followed with his second homer of the game as Oakland scored five runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Seattle Mariners 11-6 Tuesday night.

Norm Charlton (2-3) got the first out in the ninth, but the Athletics loaded the bases on a single by Jason Giambi and walks to Mark McGwire and Geronimo Berroa.

Brosius singled to center to break the 6-6 tie, and Steinbach followed with a three-run homer, giving him 17 this season, a career high. Steinbach had five RBIs.

Mike Mohler (4-0), who worked the eighth inning, got the victory on a night when the A’s hit four homers to extend their major league-lead to 130.

Oakland won for the ninth time in 10 road games.

Giambi had a career-best five hits to tie a club record, and the A’s had 16 hits, 10 of them for extra bases.

Jose Herrera tied the score at 6 when he led off the Oakland seventh with his third homer of the season.

The A’s went ahead 5-4 in the sixth on two-run homers by McGwire and Steinbach off starter Bob Wells. McGwire now has 26 homers.

The Mariners came back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 6-5 lead. Manny Martinez had an RBI triple and came in on Joey Cora’s sacrifice fly.

Seattle took a 2-0 lead in the second on Brian Hunter’s runscoring double and Dan Wilson’s RBI single. Giambi doubled in Oakland’s first run in the third.

Martinez had an RBI double in the fourth and Hunter singled in a run in the fifth for Seattle, giving the Mariners a 4-1 lead.

Wells, bidding to improve his record to 10-1 with his eighth straight win, lasted six innings, giving up five runs on eight hits and a walk. A’s starter Doug Johns went 5-1/3 innings, surrendering six runs on 10 hits.

Lou’s advice

The only advice Mariners manager Lou Piniella might give to his team’s three first-time All-Stars is to take a pitch or two.

Piniella made the All-Star Team only once during his 15-year Major League career - in 1972 as a reserve while playing with Kansas City, a season he hit .312 while pounding out an A.L.-leading 33 doubles.

“I pinch-hit and grounded out to shortstop off Tug McGraw on the first pitch,” Piniella recalled.

“I got home and called my mom and the first thing she said is ‘Why the heck didn’t you take a couple pitches?”’

Piniella, who turned down a chance to coach at this year’s game, was also the National League manager in 1991 after guiding Cincinnati to the World Series title in 1990.

Piniella said selecting the team wasn’t too tough since the league office had control over all but a couple picks.

“Where the burden comes on the manager is who plays and who doesn’t play,” Piniella said. “That year I got every position player in the game except (Philadelphia’s) John Kruk, so the rest of the year, every time we went there, they’d boo me.”

Marzano’s streak lives on

Reserve catcher John Marzano wasn’t surprised to hear Tuesday that regular catcher Dan Wilson had been named to the All-Star Team.

Marzano, who has never played more than 52 games in a season in a big-league career that dates to 1987, has come to expect an All-Star berth out of the catcher ahead of him.

In Texas last year, Marzano was behind Ivan Rodriguez. Earlier in his career, Marzano was in the Cleveland organization behind Sandy Alomar Jr., in Boston behind Rich Gedman and Tony Pena and in the Philadelphia organization behind Darren Daulton.

Cover boy

Alex Rodriguez will grace the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.

Rodriguez is now the fourth Mariner to hit the SI cover, joining Gaylord Perry and Jay Buhner, who each appeared once, and Ken Griffey Jr., (five times).