M’S Just Say Cheese, Beat Jays Buhner Remembers Former Coach’s Advice, Hammers Two-Run, Game-Winning Homer

As technology crept into baseball, former Seattle Mariners hitting coach Frank Howard liked to keep his advice simple.

“Get a piece of cheese and turn on the fan,” Howard would tell his players. Translated, that meant to wait for a fastball and swing at it.

On Sunday in the Kingdome, two men who once heard that advice - Jay Buhner and Mike Blowers - remembered it in a brief eighth inning exchange that moments later turned into a dramatic 3-2 victory over Toronto.

“That was our biggest win,” manager Lou Piniella said.

Seattle was trailing the Blue Jays in the bottom of the eighth inning, 2-1, and Buhner was getting loose in the hitting area directly under the stands behind the Mariners’ dugout when he heard it announced that Bill Risley was now pitching for Toronto.

“Risley’s pitching,” Buhner told Blowers. “I’m going to get a fastball. This would be a nice time to hit one out - 100 RBI and my 250th home run in one swing.”

And Blowers response?

“I told him to turn the fan on,” Blowers said. “And he did.”

Edgar Martinez had led off the eighth inning with a single, and one out later Buhner unloaded on a 2-1 pitch up around his neck, driving it over the left field fence for his 36th home run and a 3-2 Mariners lead.

“I was right about it getting me to 100 RBI,” said Buhner, who has now reached that mark three consecutive seasons. “But I was wrong about the home run. I thought it was my 250th, but I’ve got one more to hit.”

“That was the definition of a clutch home run,” Piniella said.

Once Buhner hit it, all the Mariners needed were three outs, and Heathcliff Slocumb, in relief of Mike Timlin and Jamie Moyer, got all of them in the ninth inning.

The resulting save - Slocumb’s 24th of the year and seventh as a Mariner - protected Seattle’s 5-1/2-game lead in the American League West with 12 games left to play.

“After the way we lost last night, this was a big win for us,” Buhner said. “This time of year, they all get big.”

Buhner paid for his dramatics - Mariners style. No sooner had he walked into a happy postgame clubhouse than Ken Griffey Jr. slammed him with a shaving cream pie.

“He thought he was safe once he got off the field clean,” Griffey said.

“My mistake,” Buhner admitted.

The home run came too late to reward seven more strong innings from Jamie Moyer, who was seeking his 17th victory and had held Toronto to two runs, those coming on back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning on consecutive pitches.

From there, the game was handed to Timlin, the former Blue Jay who has struggled since the often-villified trade of Jose Cruz Jr. In each of the first two games of this series, Timlin had faced his former team and pitched poorly.

Sunday, Piniella gave him yet another chance.

Timlin delivered a scoreless inning in which he struck out two hitters - including Cruz.

“I know these guys, some of them better off the field than on, and it was nerve-wracking to me,” Timlin admitted afterward. “The first two games, I took that to the mound with me, and it was very unprofessional. When a pitcher goes out there thinking too much, he can get in trouble.”

When Buhner hit his home run, Timlin benefited. The victory was his sixth, his third in Seattle.