Comeback Magic Elusive This Time As M’S Fail To Rally

The game looked familiar. It felt familiar - with reason.

“We’ve played this same game 60 times this season,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. “We basically play most of our games behind …”

The Mariners were behind early on Saturday. They were behind in the middle innings. And behind in the end, losing to the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6, with the tying run on base and Edgar Martinez at the plate.

“We don’t figure a game is over until the other team is shaking hands,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “We know we can come back on anybody. We know we’ve had to come back - all this season and most of the years I’ve been here. We knew coming out of spring training we would score runs. And we knew we’d have to.”

Do the math, it tells the story. The Mariners have lost 27 games this season when scoring five runs or more.

“It’s not hard to figure,” Piniella said.

“Our earned-run average is about 5.50, you add in the unearned runs we’ve allowed, it averages about six runs a game. So on average, we’ve got to score seven runs to win. It’s been like that all year, it’s not going to change.”

The frustration level might - with a postseason still within reach, losses like this one get tougher.

Behind 2-0 before they came to bat, the Mariners tied the game at 2-2 in the first inning when Griffey hit his 41st home run. That tie lasted two batters, until Pete Incaviglia homered off Jamie Moyer in the second inning.

Down 4-2 in the fourth, Seattle came back to tie it again.

That tie lasted three batters, or until Bobby Bonilla hit a home run against reliever Chris Bosio.

“There’s a limit to how many times you can ask a team to come back,” reliever Norm Charlton said. “A good team can do it once a week. We ask this team to do it three, four, five times a week. These guys have come back all year - it’s the only reason we’re above .500.

“Those 27 games we’ve lost when we score five or more runs? We should win those games.”

Griffey, who singled, doubled and homered, insisted the game hadn’t frustrated him more than a 1-0 loss.

“It’s the same thing, no matter what the score,” he said. “Take the ninth inning. I singled and Edgar came up. We’re a hit in the gap from tying the game. I wasn’t frustrated until it was over, and I’d have been frustrated with a loss no matter what the score was.”

There was no arguing, however, that a team that perpetually has to fight back from behind is at a considerable disadvantage.

“You never get a break with the other team’s pitching staff, because if they’re ahead, you only see their best pitchers,” Piniella said. “You get a lead, they may use their 10th, 11th pitcher. When you’re behind you see the best relievers they’ve got.”

Alex Rodriguez, who had another two hits and scored another two runs (his club-record total this season is 124), said the comebacks have had a cumulative impact on the team.

“It wears on you, always needing a two-run double to get back in the game,” he said. “You’re more relaxed when you’re in position to build on a lead, and when you’re relaxed the game is easier.

“The thing is, there’s a limit to how many times you can come back in a season and in a game. You come back and come back and come back and you get to the ninth inning, sometimes there’s nothing left.”

Griffey, however, had another viewpoint.

“Sometimes it comes down to the two teams involved,” he said. “Look at these two teams today. They can bop. We can bop. When you’ve got a couple teams built on hitting the ball with power, you get lineups where you can’t pitch around anybody and you get scores like we’ve had.

“You can’t pitch around their guys, they can’t pitch around ours. So you get a 7-6 game - or a 14-13 game like we had back in Baltimore earlier this year. Games like that, all you ask for is the chance to win it in your last atbat, and we had that today.”

Rodriguez, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games, said no matter how you approach an at-bat with your team trailing, there’s no escaping the difference between leading and trailing.

“Your approach is the same, but the pressure is right up there on the scoreboard,” he said.