Non-Starters Spark Mariners Blowers Helps Charlton Get Victory With Game-Winning Single In 11th

The game would go 11 high-intensity innings, but midway through it Saturday outfielder Jay Buhner - spending a rare day on the Seattle bench - saw first-hand what life is like in the dugout.

“I was pacing one way, Lou (Piniella) was pacing the other and I said, ‘If I was managing and I had hair, I’d lose it in games like this’,” Buhner said. “And Lou said, ‘Why do thinking I’m smoking this cigarette, son?”’

“You learn something every day, and today I learned what those guys on the bench and in the bullpen go through. It gave me more respect than ever for them,” Buhner said.

More than 3-1/2 hours after it began, the Mariners’ game with the Baltimore Orioles was decided when pinch-hitter Mike Blowers slapped an 11th-inning RBI single and closer Norm Charlton - working his third inning - finished up a 3-2 victory.

“You just saw 11 innings of good baseball,” Piniella said afterward. And yes, he was sneaking another smoke.

From the outset, this four-game series was billed as an early season test of potential playoff rivals, and after splitting the first two games the Mariners and Orioles played the third as if it were the 10th of October, not May.

Jeff Fassero, coming off an abysmal start against Milwaukee, held the far more potent Baltimore lineup to three hits in eight innings - and left with the score tied at 2.

“Was it fun? It was fun when we won,” said Fassero, who cut his earned-run average from 4.22 to 3.73 in the no-decision. “When you’re out there in a game like this one, you know every at-bat, every pitch, could be the difference. You’re just trying to put zeroes on the scoreboard.”

This was the kind of game it was: Seattle took a 1-0 lead when the day’s first batter, Joey Cora, slammed his third home run of the year. That score didn’t change until the fourth inning, when Baltimore pushed across an unearned run to tie.

Into the seventh inning, Fassero and Orioles right-hander Scott Kamieniecki held two of the more explosive offenses in the American League right there - knotted at 1. Then Baltimore got a runner aboard on a walk, bunted him to second and, with two outs, got the go-ahead run home on Brady Anderson’s shattered-bat single up the middle.

On the Seattle bench, Buhner and Piniella started pacing in earnest.

Alex Rodriguez then stole a run that tied it again. Rodriguez lined a base hit to center field to open the eighth inning and, when Anderson was less-than-quick to field the ball, Rodriguez sprinted into second and beat a belated throw for a double.

“That was a head’s-up play, a great baseball play, and it turned that inning around,” Blowers said.

With Ken Griffey Jr. at bat, Rodriguez then stole third base and trotted home on Junior’s sacrifice fly.

“We’re down, 2-1, to a great team on the road,” Rodriguez said. “You’ve got to try to force mistakes there. Sometimes you have to get a big run home with one hit, not three, and sometimes the home run won’t be there.

“A year ago, I might not have tried that play. This season, I feel a responsibility to make things happen. I’m one of the guys this team counts on, and I like that feeling.”

Fassero got out of the eighth inning tied because of Rodriguez’s hustle and a superb catch by left fielder Rich Amaral, who robbed Rafael Palmeiro of an apparent home run by snatching the ball just as it cleared the wall.

All that in the first eight innings - and neither team had a lead.

“At that point you know it probably comes down to the bullpen and the bench,” Orioles manager Davey Johnson said. “Lou went with his best, I went with mine.”

Johnson went to Randy Myers, Piniella to Charlton, and the two onetime teammates in Cincinnati each pitched more innings than their roles usually require.

“Hell, in the old days closers worked, two, three innings all the time,” Charlton said. “Randy’s a good friend, and I hated to see him lose. But I’d have hated to see me lose even more.”

Both men got through the ninth inning scoreless. And then through the 10th.

In the 11th, the Mariners used a walk and a Dan Wilson single to put two men on base with two outs. Blowers then delivered a single through the infield for the gamewinner.

Charlton shut down Baltimore in the 11th, earning his second victory of the year and slicing his ERA from 6.89 to 5.79.

“I could care less about my ERA, I’m paid to get saves and wins,” Charlton said. “This was a game baseball purists would love. Bunts, stolen bases, great defense, great pitching. All day it could have gone either way, and from the seventh inning on every pitch could have turned it around.”