Lou Too Angry For Words? Piniella Not Talking After Relievers Blow 5-Run Lead In 9th
Ken Griffey Jr. and Joey Cora had the historic hits Tuesday night. Marty Cordova just had the important ones.
Cordova, playing his first game in five weeks after recovering from a foot injury, hit two homers in the last two innings for the Minnesota Twins, including a three-run drive to tie the game in the ninth inning.
Norm Charlton then walked Chuck Knoblauch with the bases loaded to complete the Twins rally from five down in the final inning for an 11-10 win over the Seattle Mariners.
“Ambush,” Minnesota’s Rich Becker said. “Big ambush.”
Seattle’s collapse spoiled a game in which Griffey and Cora each set records. Griffey hit his 23rd homer, breaking his own major league mark for homers through May. Cora went 4 for 6 to extend his hitting streak to a team-record 22 games, which also tied the A.L. mark for switch hitters.
That helped Seattle build leads of 6-0 and 10-4, but neither was enough.
Manager Lou Piniella refused to talk with reporters after his team lost for the ninth time in 12 games.
“When another team gets six runs in the ninth, you have to put team goals in front of individual ones,” Griffey said.
Jay Buhner followed Griffey’s 442-foot, two-run homer in the third with a 437-foot, three-run drive that put the Mariners up 6-0. Becker helped Minnesota’s rally by going 3 for 4 with a two-run homer and an RBI double.
For Cordova, it was the second two-homer game of his career, and it came on what had been a poor night otherwise. Cordova was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts before his first homer, and his misplay in left field on Cora’s low line drive turned what would have been the final out of the seventh into Seattle’s final run and a 10-4 lead.
Cordova, who arrived in Minneapolis on Monday after a rehab assignment at Triple-A Salt Lake, homered off Mike Maddux in the eighth to make it 10-5.
Knoblauch started the winning rally with a single off Bobby Ayala, the fourth of five Seattle pitchers. Knoblauch scored on Becker’s double, which chased Ayala for Charlton.
Paul Molitor hit a sacrifice fly for the only out of the inning to make it 10-7. Terry Steinbach doubled and pinch-hitter Roberto Kelly walked before Cordova went deep again to almost the exact location as his first homer.
Cordova, who had 40 homers and 195 RBIs in his first two seasons, said hitting coach Terry Crowley helped him make an adjustment in his swing after his first three at-bats.
“It was a great day,” Cordova said. “That’s the way it goes. Sometimes you hit the ball, sometimes you don’t.”
And the adjustment?
“I hit the ball, that’s the adjustment I made,” he joked.
Charlton’s struggles didn’t end there.
He walked Greg Colbrunn and Pat Meares around a single by Ron Coomer. Knoblauch then worked the count full before drawing his 44th walk of the season, second most in the AL.
“I made some borderline pitches,” Charlton said after blowing his third straight save opportunity. “I was all over the place.”
Rick Aguilera (3-1) pitched the top of the ninth for the win.
Griffey’s homer to the seventh row of the upper deck in right surpassed the mark he had set through May 1994. He is on pace to hit 76 homers; Roger Maris didn’t hit his 23rd homer until June 17 when he set the record of 61 homers in 1961. Griffey also extended his major league-leading RBI total to 61.
Cora opened the game with a leadoff single off Kevin Jarvis. That broke the Mariners’ record 21-game hitting streak he held with Dan Meyer (1979) and Richie Zisk (1982). It also gave him a share of the league record for switch-hitters with Eddie Murray (1984) and Roberto Alomar (1996).
Pete Rose holds the major league mark for switch hitters at 44 games.
Notes
Ken Griffey was 1 for 9 in the two-game series… . The Twins expect Dan Naulty (1-1, 4.87 ERA), a key member of their bullpen, to be out a month after straining a muscle in his back Sunday night… . Joey Cora is hitting .494 during his streak… . Paul Molitor had two hits, moving him past Rod Carew (3,053) into 17th place on the career list with 3,055 hits.
xxxx CORA PLAYER OF WEEK Seattle Mariners second baseman Joey Cora was named the American League Player of the Week after batting .615 with 16 hits last week. Cora scored five runs and had a double, a home run and five runs batted in during 26 at-bats. His on-base percentage was .655 with a slugging percentage of .769. The 32-year-old Cora, who wins the award for the first time in a major-league career that covers parts of 10 seasons, currently has a 22-game hitting streak. Cora’s streak is the longest in Mariners’ history. Dan Meyer in 1979 and Richie Zisk in 1982 had 21-game streaks. He’s second in the American League with a .379 batting average and has five homers and 24 RBI in 47 games this season for Seattle. Also considered for the award were Cleveland Indians outfielders David Justice and Manny Ramirez. -Bloomberg News