Griffey Can’t Connect; Yankees Hold Off M’S

The scoreboard showed way too many numbers for Saturday night’s game to be a no-hitter.

The Seattle Mariners already had four runs on eight hits when John Wetteland faced Ken Griffey Jr. with two outs in the ninth and the tying run at second base.

That didn’t matter to New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, who rated the game with Dwight Gooden’s May 14 no-hitter against the Mariners after Wetteland struck out Griffey and secured a 5-4 win.

“I put this game up with Doc Gooden’s no-hitter in terms of excitement and tension considering who they had up at the end of the game and the situation,” Torre said. “Just a great ballgame.”

A sellout crowd of 57,173 saw the Mariners nearly overcome an early 5-0 deficit before Wetteland earned his ninth save of the year. Griffey, who hit three home runs Friday night, struck out swinging to end Seattle’s last chance.

“I can’t lie. It was pretty exciting,” Wetteland said. “I just came into the clubhouse after the game, sat down and said, ‘That was something.”’

Ramiro Mendoza (1-0) won his major league debut with six strong innings. Mendoza, called up from Triple-A Columbus late Friday night to help the Yankees’ injury-plagued rotation, allowed seven hits and three earned runs, walked none and struck out six.

“The most impressive thing was Mendoza’s pitching down and his moving fastball, getting ground balls,” Torre said. “With any luck he could have had a shutout.”

“I felt really confident, even though it was my first major league game,” Mendoza said through teammate Mariano Duncan, who interpreted Mendoza’s Spanish. “Whether it’s in front of 10,000 at Columbus or 50,000 here, I’ve got to go out and do my job.”

Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera extended his shutout streak to 26 innings with a scoreless seventh before giving up a sacrifice fly to Dan Wilson in the eighth.

Wetteland walked Darren Bragg with one out in the ninth. Bragg tried to steal and was safe when second baseman Andy Fox dropped the throw for an error. Alex Rodriguez and Griffey, who earlier had a two-run single, then struck out.

The Yankees tagged Edwin Hurtado (2-5) for five runs in the second inning after Hurtado retired the side in order in the first.

The first five New York batters in the second all scored. Mariano Duncan hit a two-run double, Ruben Rivera a run-scoring single, and Derek Jeter and Wade Boggs added sacrifice flies.

Rodriguez drove in Seattle’s first run with a double in the third.

The Mariners took advantage of three perfectly placed hits to add two more runs in the fifth inning.

Bragg hit a liner that short-hopped off first baseman Tino Martinez’s chest and bounced into left field. Rodriguez followed with an infield single that Mendoza tried to barehand but couldn’t. Griffey drove home both runners with a liner off the glove of a leaping Martinez for a single.

Notes

In four starts this year, Hurtado is 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA. After the game, the Mariners optioned Hurtado to Triple-A Tacoma and recalled right-hander Paul Menhart, who will start today against the Yankees… . Jay Buhner was removed for precautionary reasons in the sixth inning with a mild sprain of his right knee. He is listed as day-to-day.<