Mac Attack Eats At M’S Oakland Slugger Rips Two Fifth-Inning Home Runs To Terminate To Seattle’s 10-Game Winning Streak

Streaking toward the most sensational finish in major league history - an unprecedented 19 consecutive victories to close out the season, enter the playoffs and then the World Series - the Seattle Mariners encountered two forces of nature Sunday.

One was reality. The other Mark McGwire.

Checked hard by one, a little awed by the other, the Mariners were reminded of the oldest axiom in the game - losses happen.

Even after 10 victories in a row. Even with 11 runs. Even in front of 54,194 adoring fans in the Kingdome.

Losses happen in a 162-game season, and one happened to the Mariners on Sunday, when McGwire hit two mammoth home runs in the same inning - both into the upper deck in left field - and Oakland hung on for a 13-11 victory that cost Seattle dearly.

The longest winning streak in franchise history had pulled the Mariners from the brink of elimination to the heart of a race, a half-game out in the wild-card run, one game back in the American League West.

And the first time they lose in 11 games, they lose ground in both races.

“Realistically, we’ve got to go 6-1 in our last seven games and then win the makeup game in Cleveland,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said.

Ken Griffey Jr. shook his head.

“Nah, we go 7-0 then maybe we don’t have to go to Cleveland,” he said.

On a day when the Mariners lost and the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles won, Seattle faced one certainty: They don’t think they can lose two more games this year and get to the postseason.

And they might not be able to lose even one more. Not when they trail Texas by two games, Baltimore by 1.

To get even that close, of course, the Mariners ran off that franchise-record 10-game winning streak, then took a 3-0 lead on Sunday against Oakland. To that point, McGwire said, Seattle had done everything well in this three-game series.

“I know they’d pitched me well,” he said. “I hadn’t had a pitch to drive in this series.”

In the fifth inning, he got two. Oakland was leading, 5-3, when McGwire led off with a home run into the second deck in left field against Bob Wolcott that went an estimated 473 feet.

“That’s the longest ball I’ve ever seen hit,” Junior said.

In the Kingdome?

“Anywhere,” Griffey said.

“I lost it in the lights,” McGwire said, shrugging massive shoulders.

McGwire’s shot sparked an A’s rally that three pitchers - Wolcott, Rusty Meacham and Matt Wagner - couldn’t stop, and before they could get out of the inning, McGwire came to bat again, this time with the bases loaded.

Wagner threw a breaking ball. McGwire vaporized it, a 481-foot grand slam that put Oakland ahead, 13-3.

In the history of the Kingdome, only seven men had ever reached that distant second section in left field. And then McGwire did it twice - in the same inning - with home runs No. 51 and 52 for the season.

It was the 30th time in major league history a man had homered twice in an inning, just the 12th time in the A.L.