M’S Rally To Save Martinez Eighth-Inning Spurt Gives M’S 7-6 Victory, But Ancient Mariner Goes Without Decision

When Dennis Martinez showed up in Arizona, he said once he got his 41-year-old right arm in shape he thought he could hold a major league team to three runs or less.

“Just hold ‘em to five and you’ll get your share of wins here,” manager Lou Piniella said. “If a fifth starter gives up five runs a game, we’ll win more than we lose.”

Martinez and his right arm are about to turn 42 - his birthday comes May 14 - and six starts into the 1997 season, he has one victory.

As for Seattle, the come-from-behind 7-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday left the team 4-2 in games the Ancient Mariner has begun.

Should Martinez have more than one victory for his efforts?

“This game isn’t fair,” Piniella said.

And Martinez does have a 5.75 earned-run average.

That he didn’t lose Tuesday was due far more to another eighth-inning rally than any solid pitching. On a night when Seattle’s high-octane offense went without a home run, the Mariners made up a 6-3 eighth-inning deficit with a flurry of hits from the least-acknowledged part of the lineup.

Russ Davis - who’d never had a hit in Comiskey Park - made his first an RBI double off the top of the center-field wall. Alvaro Espinoza, out of the game at Easter, delivered an RBI single that inched the Mariners to within a run at 6-5.

That brought up Rich Amaral.

A platooning outfielder who began the game with 36 at-bats in Seattle’s first 30 games, Amaral finished a perfect 4-for-4 night with a two-run single off the end of his bat, a bloop that dropped and put the Mariners ahead, 7-6.

“I’ll take the cheapest hits you can get if that’s what it takes,” Amaral said. “I don’t know if it evens out, if the bloops make up for the line drives that are caught. I know they probably don’t for Edgar Martinez.

“I don’t want to sound like a brain surgeon, but a hit is a hit.”

Amaral’s perfect night left him hitting .425 this season, and he added a pair of steals - No. 6 and 7 - to his game.

Before the Mariners could work their magic again in the eighth inning, and in that inning this season they’ve out-scored the opposition, 43-10, they needed help from their bullpen.

They got it.

Martinez left trailing 6-3 with one out and a man on second base. Bobby Ayala kept him there. One out into the eighth inning, Ayala gave way to Greg McCarthy, who got two more outs. That took the game to the ninth - by which time Seattle had a onerun lead.

“The ninth is Norm’s,” Piniella said.

As in Charlton. This time, all the left-hander had to do was get pinch-hitter Darren Lewis, Frank Thomas and Albert Belle.

Lewis hit a high chopper to third and was gunned down by Davis. Thomas, fooled, one-handed a ball to the warning track in left field, where Amaral caught it. Belle took a called third strike.

“Just another 1-2-3 ninth,” said Charlton, who earned his eighth save.

With the victory, the Mariners inched their lead in the American League West to 11/2 games over Texas and ran their road record to 10-4 - best in the majors.

“Confident teams can win on the road,” Piniella said. “Of course, I can’t explain why we’re 10-4 on the road and 9-8 at home. But if we’re going to be .500 at home, we’d better win a lot of these games on the road, and tonight was a good one.”

Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Amaral lf 4 1 4 2 1 0 .425 ARodriguez ss 5 1 0 0 0 1 .309 Griffey Jr cf 5 1 2 0 0 1 .358 EMartinez dh 4 0 2 2 1 0 .322 Buhner rf 4 1 1 1 1 1 .234 Blowers 1b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .200 b-Sorrento ph-1b 0 0 0 0 1 0 .315 DaWilson c 5 0 1 0 0 2 .337 RDavis 3b 5 1 1 1 0 1 .316 Espinoza 2b 4 0 1 1 0 1 .261 1-Ducey pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 .333 Gates 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .219 Totals 40 7 14 7 4 7

Chicago AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Durham 2b 4 1 0 0 1 2 .281 DaMartinez cf 3 1 2 0 1 0 .263 c-DLewis ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .125 FThomas 1b 5 1 2 1 0 0 .337 Belle lf 4 2 1 2 0 1 .222 Baines dh 4 0 1 1 0 0 .301 LMouton rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .306 Snopek 3b 0 0 0 0 1 0 .214 a-NMartin ph-3b 3 0 1 0 0 1 .310 Karkovice c 4 1 1 1 0 1 .179 OGuillen ss 3 0 0 0 1 0 .247 Totals 34 6 8 5 4 5

Seattle 102 000 040 - 7

Chicago 300 200 100 - 6

a-flied out for Snopek in the 3rd. b-walked for Blowers in the 9th. c-grounded out for Martinez in the 9th.

1-ran for Espinoza in the 8th.

E-Espinoza (1). LOBSeattle 10, Chicago 7. 2B-Griffey Jr (6), RDavis (11), DaMartinez (3), Baines (1), NMartin (2). HR- Karkovice (3) off DeMartinez; Belle (5) off DeMartinez. RBIsAmaral 2 (9), EMartinez 2 (21), Buhner (15), RDavis (16), Espinoza (3), FThomas (17), Belle 2 (18), Baines (8), Karkovice (10). SB-Amaral 2 (7), Durham (9), Belle (2). CS-Durham (5). GIDPBuhner.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 4 (Griffey Jr, EMartinez, Buhner, RDavis); Chicago 4 (Belle, NMartin, Karkovice 2).

Runners moved up-ARodriguez, EMartinez.

DP-Chicago 1 (Snopek, Durham and FThomas).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA DeMartinez 6-1/3 8 6 5 4 2 108 5.75 Ayala W,3-1 1 0 0 0 0 1 15 5.00 McCarthy 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 6 3.75 Charlton S,8 1 0 0 0 0 1 12 6.89

Chicago IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Alvarez 6 8 3 3 2 4 110 3.35 Levine 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 9 4.63 TCastillo L,2-3 1-2/3 4 4 4 1 1 35 7.47 Simas 1 1 0 0 1 2 23 1.69

Inherited runners-scored-Ayala 1-0, TCastillo 1-0.

HBPby DeMartinez (Belle), by DeMartinez (LMouton).

T-3:34. A-19,316 (44,321).