M’s slip by Padres
SAN DIEGO – Raul Ibanez tamed Petco Park with one well-timed swing.
Ibanez homered leading off the 11th inning, his fourth hit, to give the Seattle Mariners a 6-5 victory over the N.L. West-leading San Diego Padres on Friday night.
The opposite-field shot to left-center at the spacious downtown ballpark was Ibanez’s first homer since April 19, a span of 159 at-bats.
“I knew I hit it pretty well but I hadn’t hit one in a while, so I wasn’t sure,” said Ibanez, who drove a 2-1 pitch from sidearmer Cla Meredith an estimated 387 feet. It was Ibanez’s second of the season.
“I know it’s a tough park to hit in, but I wasn’t really thinking about that,” Ibanez said. “In case it didn’t go, I was just trying to run and hopefully get three if you can. But it probably would have been more like two.”
Ibanez’s power production is way off a year after hitting a career-high 33 homers, but he’s still driving in runs.
“If there’s a time to do it, this was the time,” manager Mike Hargrove said.
“The pitch was up a bit,” said Meredith (2-4). “Unfortunately, it got too much of the plate. He took me out at Petco Park. What else can you do but roll with it?”
Seattle, which blew a 5-0 lead, won for the 12th time in 17 games. San Diego’s five-game winning streak was snapped.
Seattle’s Yuniesky Betancourt hit an RBI single in the second inning to extend his career-best hitting streak to 19 games, the longest active streak in the majors. He also singled in the sixth. Jose Lopez, Ibanez and Kenji Johjima had three hits apiece for the Mariners, who had 16 hits and stranded 13 runners.
Eric O’Flaherty (2-0) got the final out of the 10th for the win. J.J. Putz pitched a perfect 11th for his 16th save in as many chances.
The Padres rallied for four runs in the seventh to tie it at 5. On Thursday night, they rallied for five in the ninth to stun the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5.
Seattle’s Miguel Batista threw six strong innings before getting into trouble in the seventh by walking the bases full with two outs. Marcus Giles then beat out an infield single to short to bring in Russell Branyan, and Betancourt’s throw got past first baseman Sexson for an error that allowed Hiram Bocachica to score and Jose Cruz Jr. to take third.
George Sherrill relieved Batista and promptly gave up pinch-hitter Kevin Kouzmanoff’s two-run double into the gap in right-center field to tie the game at 5.
“It was one of his better outings,” Hargrove said of Batista. “Miguel was absolutely outstanding, then all of a sudden there in the seventh he started flying open and lost his release point. Three walks in that inning killed him.”
San Diego scored its first run in the fifth when Khalil Greene doubled with one out and scored on Paul McAnulty’s two-out, pinch-hit single.
The Mariners rallied for four runs with two outs in the fifth off Padres rookie right-hander Justin Germano to take a 5-0 lead. Three straight hits brought in the runs – Ibanez’s single to center, Richie Sexson’s two-run double down the left-field line and Johjima’s RBI double to left-center.
Germano got a no-decision after winning his previous four starts. He allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings, struck out three and walked two.
M’s take DuRocher
Johnny DuRocher has completed an improbable, seven-month journey from brain surgery patient to newest member of the Seattle Mariners’ organization.
The Mariners selected the former Washington quarterback in the 34th round of the major league draft, even though the 6-foot-4, 215-pound DuRocher appeared in just four games and threw only six innings this season for the Huskies. That was the right-hander’s first baseball action since 2001 when he was a sophomore catcher at Bethel High School in Graham.
DuRocher had a plate and screws placed in his head on Nov. 30, after doctors removed a non-cancerous brain tumor.
“Anybody who can survive brain surgery and come through that gets another notch in my book,” said Jim Fitzgerald, the Mariners’ Northwest area scout.
Notes
Mariners third-base coach Carlos Garcia was ejected by plate umpire Alfonso Marquez for arguing a called strike to pinch-hitter Jose Vidro with two outs in the ninth. Garcia ran to home plate and continued arguing briefly. … Padres center fielder Mike Cameron, formerly with Seattle, left the game as a precaution after bruising his left wrist when he caught it on Richie Sexson’s glove while being thrown out at first in the seventh. … Seattle was the last team in the majors to play an extra-inning game.