Mariners Light Up Rocket Martinez’s Homer Leads Seattle Over Toronto 7-3

As long as they can keep sewing Edgar Martinez together, the Seattle Mariners seem likely to play into October - though neither is a certainty just yet.

Creeping closer to clinching the American League West title with a 7-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, the Mariners got another big game from their designated hitter:

Three hits, one home run, three RBIs, two runs, eight stitches.

“My week has been like a hockey game,” Martinez said.

Five stitches on Monday in Kansas City when he was conked by a flying bat he lost in the lights, and eight more in the Kingdome on Friday after a home plate collision with catcher Charley O’Brien.

“This is getting a little rough,” Martinez said.

He didn’t mean the pennant race.

That remained in Seattle’s control, as did the league’s most dominant pitcher this season - Roger Clemens. Against the rest of baseball, Clemens is 21-4 with a 1.56 earned-run average. Against Seattle he has been shelled.

“With Roger, you know he’s going to challenge you, you know you may get one pitch to hit a night, so you’d better not miss it,” Ken Griffey Jr. said.

The Mariners haven’t, not this season, and in a year in which Clemens has allowed only 54 earned runs, 16 of those have come in three starts against the Mariners - games in which he is 0-2 with a 6.86 ERA.

A crowd of 37,044 got to watch a lot of baseball crammed into just 2 hours and 38 minutes. There was the first six innings, in which Seattle’s defense shone and Omar Olivares outpitched Clemens before leaving with a 3-0 lead.

And then, with Jose Cruz Jr. watching from the Toronto dugout, the two pitchers he was traded for - Paul Spoljaric and Mike Timlin - coughed up the lead in less time than seemed possible.

In one nightmarish stretch in the seventh, Spoljaric faced two batters and gave up two singles, Timlin faced two batters and allowed one hit and a bases-loaded walk and Bobby Ayala gave up a two-run single to tie the game.

At that point, the Mariners bullpen had faced five batters, lost all of a three-run lead and recorded only one out that at third base on a Rob Ducey to-Paul Sorrento-to-Brent-Gates relay.

“Bobby came into a tough, tough situation, bases loaded and nobody out,” Piniella said. “He got out of it by striking out Jose (Cruz) and getting Joe Carter on a fly ball. That was good pitching.”

The tie lasted into the eighth inning, when Seattle made one last charge.

Roberto Kelly drew a walk and, on a hit-and-run play, Griffey singled into left-center to put runners on first and third base. At that point, the crowd waited to see if Martinez would come up.

Two innings earlier, trying to score from first base on an Alex Rodriguez double, Martinez went face-to-catchers mask with Charlie O’Brien and lost. Not only was he out on the play, but when he walked into the Seattle dugout, blood was running freely down his throat from a gash under his chin.

“You don’t think about that kind of thing when you’re trying to score,” Martinez said of the collision. “Afterward, you think about it.”

Trainer Rick Griffin, who’d stitched the back of Martinez’s head in Kansas City on Monday, took one look at him Friday and shook his head.

“I told him, ‘Here we go again, Edgar,”’ Griffin said. “And we sewed him up.”

So it was a re-sewn Martinez who strode to the plate in that eighth inning against Clemens, then delivered a three-run home run - his 26th - to break the game open. Initially ruled a double, umpire Terry Craft said the ball was caught and dropped by a fan above the right-field scoreboard.

The Blue Jays argued but lost the debate and the game.

Clemens departed. Tim Crabtree relieved him. And Sorrento hit his 28th homer.

Heathcliff Slocumb worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning and Seattle had it’s 82nd victory - the third-highest win total in franchise history. The M’s also maintained their 5-1/2-game lead in the A.L. West with just 14 games to play.

“A great win against a great pitcher,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We got good pitching in key spots and we got great defense.”

The best defense came from Griffey.

Carlos Delgado led off the Toronto eighth with a bolt to center field. Griffey, in full sprint, caught the ball with a leap that took him face first into the fence. It brought the crowd to it’s feet - and started an “MVP” chant.

Griffey was asked how he’d managed to keep his face from slamming into the wall despite hitting it full speed.

“I ain’t Edgar,” Griffey said, laughing. “I watch him play and his head’s always bleeding and stuff - I got to keep my face like it is.”