Sexson leads M’s to victory
SAN DIEGO – Richie Sexson already was 4 for 4 with two homers when he came up again with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday and practically willed himself another hit.
“I was concentrating pretty hard,” said Sexson, who doubled down the right-field line to finish a career-best 5 for 5 in the Seattle Mariners’ 9-4 win over the San Diego Padres. “I’ve never done it before. I thought it would be cool if I could get that. It’s kind of nice. Not everyone does it.”
Sexson was hitting just .211 coming in, and had spent a lot of time in the batting cage.
“It was a nice day for me,” the big first baseman said. “I felt pretty good the last couple of weeks, just hadn’t gotten a ton of results, but I think that’s a start for me. It’s just feeling good. Today it finally culminated in some hits for me.”
Sexson came into the game 2 for 20 against the Padres this season. Including his RBI single in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s win, he had hits in six straight at-bats.
He hit an RBI single in the first, homered leading off the fourth, singled in the fifth, hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth and then doubled and scored in the ninth. He had three RBIs and scored three runs.
Ichiro Suzuki also had three RBIs. The Mariners took two of three and finished the season series 5-1 against the Padres. Overall, Seattle has won seven of nine.
Mike Cameron homered for the third straight game, and the Padres also got homers from Khalil Greene and Ben Johnson. All three came off Joel Pineiro. San Diego, which dropped a game behind the first-place Dodgers in the N.L. West, hit eight homers in the series, all solo shots.
The teams combined for 14 homers in the series, a Petco Park record. All were solo shots.
Sexson broke a 4-4 tie when he homered to right-center with one out in the eighth off Alan Embree.
“It was a good pitch,” Embree said. “He went out and got it. When a guy is having a day like he did, he’s not missing anything.”
Sexson and Embree attended the same high school in Brush Prairie, Wash.
“Now he’s got a little bragging rights,” Embree said. “Last time, I struck him out.”
Sexson has 14 homers this season. It was his 23rd career multihomer game.
“Without going postal, he obviously killed us today,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said.
The Mariners added three more runs off Jon Adkins with two outs in the eighth. Suzuki hit a bases-loaded blooper to shallow left to bring in two runs, and Adrian Beltre hit an RBI single.
George Sherrill pitched a perfect seventh for the win.
Padres catcher Josh Bard and Bochy were ejected by plate umpire Paul Nauert after Bard took a called third strike to end the eighth. After being tossed, Bard argued with Nauert and pointed his bat at the umpire’s face. The catcher had to be restrained by third base coach Glenn Hoffman.
Bochy came out to argue and was tossed.
Bard refused comment. Bochy said the Padres thought a 3-2 pitch to Carl Everett with two outs in the top of the eighth should have been called a strike. Instead, Everett walked to load the bases ahead of Suzuki.
“The pitch on him and Bard are the exact same pitch,” Bochy said. “I felt both of them were strikes, no question about it.
“You always want that call,” Bochy said. “It’s a different game, no question about it. That’s definitely a huge call. It opened up the floodgates. There’s not much you can do about it at that point except what we did, and that’s argue.”
Greene and Johnson homered to left on consecutive pitches from Pineiro with none out in the fifth to tie the score at 4. Greene connected on a 2-2 pitch leading off the inning, his 10th, and Johnson followed with his second.
The Mariners had taken a 4-1 lead in the fourth by scoring three runs, only one earned.
Cameron homered against Pineiro leading off the third.
Pineiro allowed four runs and six hits in six innings, struck out five and walked one. Thompson went seven innings, allowing four runs, two earned, and seven hits. He walked four and struck out three.