A’S Long Ball Foils Mariners Oakland Connects On Four Homers, And That’s With Mcgwire Taking Day Off

With Mark McGwire taking the day off, the Oakland Athletics showed they don’t always need their big hitter to outscore the opposition.

“I’m sure Seattle’s looking at our lineup without McGwire and thinking they’ve got a great chance of winning,” said Oakland manager Art Howe after the Athletics hit four home runs in a 7-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

“But we showed we’ve got some sock elsewhere. It’s almost like a double win.”

Terry Steinbach, Ernie Young, Scott Brosius and Geronimo Berroa all homered while McGwire took a rare day off. Young, lately just a part-time player, broke a seventh-inning tie and put the A’s ahead to stay.

“I wouldn’t say it was a wake-up call,” Young said of his recent benching, “but I was ready. I can’t worry about things I have no control over. You may not be in there tomorrow.”

Seattle starter Matt Wagner gave up two home runs and five runs in three innings, the shortest outing of his nine-start career.

“I heard this used to be a pitcher’s park,” Wagner said. “You can’t prove it by me.”

The A’s have hit a major league-leading 150 home runs, including 24 in their last 13 games.

“You should be able to win with six runs,” said Seattle manager Lou Piniella. “We need to go out and get a really good, experienced starting pitcher.”

Young’s 13th home run, a one-out shot off reliever Blas Minor (0-1), landed in the soon-to-be-open bleacher seats over the left field fence to break a 5-5 tie.

The A’s, who also got a three-run blast from Steinbach, a two-run homer from Berroa and a solo shot from Brosius, have hit 24 homers in their last 13 games.

Jim Corsi (4-0) pitched 2 2-3 innings of one-hit relief to get the win, Oakland’s second straight over Seattle. Bill Taylor got the last out for his eighth save after the Mariners had scored on a groundout in the ninth off Mike Mohler.

Joey Cora doubled and scored on a single by Ken Griffey Jr. to give Seattle a 1-0 lead in the first.

Oakland answered in the second on Steinbach’s three-run homer, his 19th, after a double by Brosius and single by Matt Stairs.

Seattle came right back in the third to take a 5-3 lead. Edgar Martinez had a two-run single and Jay Buhner hit a two-run homer, his 24th, giving both players 81 RBIs this season.

But the A’s tied it again 5-5 in the third, when Jason Giambi doubled and Berroa followed with a 434-foot home run to center.

Seattle right-hander Matt Wagner allowed five runs and six hits in only three innings, the shortest outing of his nine-start career. Oakland’s John Wasdin gave up five runs on six hits in three innings before leaving after 5-1/3 innings without a decision.

Goofball Griffey back

Anyone doubting Ken Griffey Jr. had rejoined the Mariners didn’t need to check the lineup Wednesday - simply listen to the clubhouse laughter.

Griffey’s on-field impersonation of shortstop Alex Rodriguez being introduced at the All-Star Game, complete with a strutting trot to the foul line and an elaborate bow, had teammates in stitches.

No one laughed harder than Rodriguez.

Even Griffey’s mock outrage was hilarious, when he realized that most of the young women lining the top of the Seattle dugout before the game were there not for him but for Rodriguez.

“They like him ‘cause he’s young and pretty and clean-shaven,” Griffey said, fingering a goatee he has been attempting to grow for three weeks. “All I got to do is shave and I’ll get ‘em all back - then Alex will have to go hang around high school again to impress girls.”

Once batting practice began, Griffey was only slight more serious, though just as dazzling. He hit one ball into the suites being finished by construction workers stationed far beyond the right-center field fence.

“That’s why those guys are wearing hard hats out there,” manager Lou Piniella said, shaking his head.

Only catcher John Marzano stopped Griffey in his tracks. A local radio reporter was interviewing Marzano on his memories of the 1984 U.S. Olympic baseball team - and Griffey began trying to butt in.

“What I remember most about that team,” Marzano said, “was that I was on it and Ken Griffey Jr. wasn’t.”

Junior laughed.

Notes

Right-hander Chris Bosio threw on the sideline in Tacoma on Wednesday, but his scheduled one-inning relief appearance was a washout. Next stop? He’ll pitch Friday for Class A Lancaster (Calif.) - along with Randy Johnson. “That ought to draw a crowd,” Piniella said. Johnson is scheduled to pitch two innings that night, Bosio three. Johnson’s second rehabilitation appearance will apparently be with the Everett Aqua Sox, not the Rainiers… . Add Johnson: His continuing photographic escapades involved Oakland first baseman Mark McGwire on Wednesday. Shooting for Pinnacle Card Co., Johnson talked McGwire into a midafternoon session in which he posed lifting a bat with 45-pound weights on either end.