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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Swingin’ back

M's starting pitcher Felix Hernandez looked solid – giving up one run and four hits – through the first six innings on Monday night. Associated Press
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review

SEATTLE – On the white greaseboard in the Seattle Mariners locker room, the message was loud, but the subtext unclear.

“No hitters mtg – Santana,” it read.

OK, simple enough. The night’s opposing pitcher was fearsome Minnesota ace Johan Santana and there would be no pre-game hitters’ meeting for the M’s to go over his repertoire. And this would be because?

“What’s the use?

“No problem – the Twins are going so badly they might not win even if Santana throws a shutout.

“Don’t mess up a good thing by overthinking it.

Pennant fever – well, wild card fever – returned to Safeco Field on Monday night, with the added drama of one of those pitching matchups for the ages. OK, for this age.

Santana vs. the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez is not Koufax vs. Gibson, but of course there is no such thing anymore. And while there are statistically more accomplished pitchers this season, the voltage on this night was considerable – Santana for being a two-time Cy Young Award winner very much in his prime and tougher than rhino jerky, and Hernandez for the sheer possibility of his greatness.

Naturally, neither was around for the finish – we told you it wasn’t Koufax vs. Gibson – and neither man won, so the satisfactions were diluted, at least until Richie Sexson put a charge into reliever Matt Guerrier’s hanging slider in the ninth inning and landed it in the M’s bullpen for a 4-3 Seattle victory.

And nobody booed.

Plus whatever it’s-about-times being muttered were drowned out by the approving roar of 37,902 in the flip-flop chorus.

Richie Sexson has spent the entire season playing peek-a-boo with the Mendoza Line and being perhaps the biggest free-agent disappointment in Mariners history, which is saying something in a dubious lineage that goes back to Pete O’Brien.

Then he picks the night of the sexiest pitching show of the season to launch a last-ditch campaign for love.

Ten days ago, the M’s first baseman had been literally booed out of the lineup. After a dismal homestand, manager John McLaren benched Sexson for the final two games of the Boston series, all too aware of how the constant booing was a drag not only on Sexson but the entire team.

“It’s not a good feeling to be booed,” McLaren said. “It’s a very humbling experience, I can tell you. When you go on the road, it’s kind of a compliment – boo all you want. (Jay) Buhner used to love that stuff.”

Except on the road, they don’t even bother to boo Sexson – he’s been the best antidote to an M’s rally all year. Until this last trip.

Suddenly, he found his swing. He went 8 of 21 with two home runs. He put together a five-game hitting streak. The Mariners won five of six. And then came a two-run double that got the M’s going against Santana, and the homer to win it.

He wasn’t the only one who had to get lost to find himself. Raul Ibanez, his job security threatened by his own lame bat and the emergence of recently recalled Adam Jones, had been almost as big a target of the Safeco boobirds as Sexson. Yet on the road trip he busted out so big that he was named American League player of the week for hitting .481 with five home runs.

Ibanez spent a good portion of Monday avoiding a discussion about it. But Sexson took it on like another hanging slider.

“I’ve never heard the cheers here for a long time, so it was nice,” he said. “And nothing against them – like I’ve said, I’ve dug my own grave here with the fans, I guess. They’re just booing me because they want me to be good. I don’t think it’s a stab against my personality.

“It’s frustrating because you put so much work into this game and they don’t see that side of it.”

And a hit doesn’t necessarily bail you out. After his first inning double, Sexson struck out in the fourth and sixth – and the boos were back.

“They’ll do what they do,” he shrugged, before calling the Safeco dynamic “a mystery.”

After all, the Mariners are 66-50, still dogging the Angels in the A.L. West and keeping pace with the Yankees in the wild card chase. It’s the first contender Seattle has fielded since 2003 and yet it isn’t being received with the kind of joy you might expect.

“Any little thing we do, they boo it,” Sexson said. “It’s been three or four years since we’ve won and it’s strange that we’re winning now and that’s still the way it’s going. We love to play here, but it’s strange that we’re winning games and there’s still a little negative vibe – and that’s typically not how Seattle rolls.”

It doesn’t make Sexson or his teammates angry, necessarily, or even frustrated.

“It’s just a mystery,” he said. “We don’t get it. We don’t understand where it’s coming from.”

Of course, it is all a matter of perspective. It’s a boo, not a bomb.

“It might have been good to get on the road for a bit,” McLaren acknowledged. “As much as our fans love our players, sometimes they’re not happy with them and let them know it – that’s the reality of the game. I think they’re just trying to push the players in their way, but it’s not a nice feeling. But we’re lucky we’re not in Boston or Philadelphia or New York, I guess.”

No kidding. In those places, they might have booed the home run that turned Santana vs. Hernandez into an afterthought.