SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners have waited for someone – anyone, please – to step up and get them out of their 18 days of angst.

On the way to what seemed like another bleak September night, Adam Jones became that guy Wednesday at Safeco Field.

The Mariners’ prized outfield prospect dusted himself off after a chin-high brushback pitch from Oakland reliever Alan Embree, then drove a pinch-hit home run to tie the score in the eighth inning,

The Mariners won it in the ninth when Yuniesky Betancourt’s single drove in Jose Guillen for a 6-5 Mariners victory over the A’s.

“Hopefully, we can build from this and start relaxing and play our type of baseball,” manager John McLaren said.

Nobody can say the victory was the official end to a stretch that had gone from bad to inexplicable for the Mariners, but it certainly was a baby step after they’d lost 15 of 17 games.

It prevented them from losing another game in both the American League West and A.L. wild-card standings. They trail Los Angeles by 9 1/2 in the West and the New York Yankees by 6 1/2 in the wild card.

Starting pitcher Miguel Batista, despite leading 4-3 when he left the game, struggled with baserunners in all but one of his six innings and his pitch count soared early, forcing McLaren to rely on his bullpen again.

The A’s scored twice in the seventh against Mariners relievers to take a 5-4 lead. Left-hander Eric O’Flaherty loaded the bases with two singles and a walk and George Sherrill gave up a two-out, two-strike, two-run single to pinch-hitter Mike Piazza.

The Mariners outhit the A’s 15-12 for the game and put runners on base in five of the six-plus innings they faced Oakland starter Dan Haren.

Until Jones’ home run, they scored only in the second on Raul Ibanez’s two-run single and the sixth on Ichiro Suzuki’s RBI single, and Jose Vidro was thrown out twice at the plate.

The Mariners had three errors, a passed ball and a wild pitch, and the A’s stole two bases off catcher Jamie Burke, who started because Kenji Johjima was nursing a bruised wrist.

With hope fading after the A’s had taken a 5-4 lead, Jones stepped to the plate to start the bottom of the eighth against Embree.

The veteran left-hander got two quick strikes, then flung a face-high fastball that doubled Jones over backward. The 22-year-old dug in again and held his ground for another fastball, and he got one he could drive.

Jones planted it over the wall in right-center field to tie the score at 5.

One inning later, Betancourt won it when he flared a single to right-center off right-hander Andrew Brown to win the game and, for a day, ease the pain of a September that had gone completely wrong.

“They were playing it like a playoff game,” McLaren said. “I feel good for these guys. They were really hurting.”