Ducey’s Solo Effort Lifts M’S With Griffey Shackled, Ducey, Buhner Power Win Over Royals

The box score will show that he went 0 for 3, drawing a pair of walks - including an intentional walk in the ninth inning.

Ken Griffey Jr. wants you to know he still had a lot to do with Seattle’s come-from-behind, 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.

“I’ve been taking Jay and Rob into the back room, you know, working with them a little,” Griffey said.

And then he laughed - the hard laugh of a man whose team will awaken this morning with a five-game lead in the American League West with 17 left to play.

As for his coaching, Junior was joking. He may lead the baseball world with 50 home runs, but the shots hit Tuesday by teammates Jay Buhner and Rob Ducey had nothing to do with the All-Star centerfielder, and he knew it.

Buhner’s shot tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth inning, and then, after the Mariners had fought back for a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning, Ducey was brought into the game for defensive purposes.

“We had him in there for his arm,” manager Lou Piniella said, winking, “and his bat.”

On a night when Seattle’s much maligned bullpen held the Royals in check over the final 4-2/3 innings - not allowing a run - it was Ducey’s solo home run in the top of the ninth inning that gave Seattle its first lead.

Heathcliff Slocumb got the final three outs for his 23rd save, his sixth for the Mariners. Four other relievers helped him shut out Kansas City to make the comeback possible.

“It’s the way we have to win,” Piniella said. “The last guy in the game gets the save, but tonight there could have been two or three saves, including the big one in the fifth inning by Bobby Ayala.”

The situation in that fifth inning was grim for the Mariners. Down, 3-1, they faced a bases-loaded, one-out scenario when Ayala trotted in from the bullpen. Ayala got Jay Bell to tap back to the mound, then started a home-to-first base double play that ended the inning.

“That might have been the game right there,” Slocumb said.

Except Seattle still trailed by two runs.

Edgar Martinez cut the deficit in half with a sixth-inning RBI single that followed walks to Joey Cora and Griffey. And in the seventh, Dan Wilson and Brent Gates singled before Cora’s sacrifice fly scored pinch-runner Rich Amaral to tie the game.

Ayala pitched 1-2/3 innings before Norm Charlton relieved him and tacked on 1-1/3 innings of his own. Mike Timlin came into the game in the eighth inning and gave up a two-out double - at which point Piniella sent Ducey into left field in place of Amaral.

Timlin got out of the eighth, and Ducey hit a 3-2 pitch from Hippolito Pichardo over the right-field fence for his fourth home run of the year.

“I knew they weren’t going to walk me with Junior coming up,” Ducey said.

That might have been true, except Ducey was batting in the eighth spot in the lineup when he homered - and Griffey wasn’t due up for another four batters.

Ducey’s shot went 395 feet. Buhner, on the other hand, found the next level.

“I hit it pretty well, didn’t I?” Buhner said of his 34th home run. The estimated tale of the tape was 450 feet, and the ball landed in the second of two fountains beyond the right-centerfield wall. “I know when I got back to the dugout, I sat down and Junior just looked at me and said, ‘Damn!”’

Griffey was asked which ball had gone farther, Buhner’s home run Tuesday or one he’d hit into the fountains two years ago. He pretended to ponder the question, a mischievous grin on his face.

“Now that’s something we could argue about,” Junior said. And then he pointed at Buhner. “His went further.”

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1. A.L. WESTERN DIVISION W L Pct. GB Seattle 80 65 .552 - Anaheim 75 70 .517 5

2. ON DECK Tonight: The Mariners begin a two-game series against Detroit with a 7:35 Kingdome start that will be televised on Fox Sports Northwest.