Austin Jackson rescues Mariners

SEATTLE — OK, somehow it turned out well. The Mariners rescued themselves Tuesday night from their increasingly combustible bullpen by pulling out a 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in 10 innings. Austin Jackson provided the walk-off victory by shooting a grounder through the right side of the infield with the bases loaded. It shouldn’t have been this hard. The Mariners were five outs from victory with a 5-2 lead before Tom Wilhelmsen and Joe Beimel gave up back-to-back homers in the eighth inning. That snatched a victory away from Taijuan Walker, who recovered from a rough start by pitching through the sixth inning. Logan Morrison started the winning rally with a bloop double that fell just fair inside the left-field line against lefty reliever T.J. McFarland (0-2). Brad Miller then hopped a single through the left side of the infield that moved Morrison to third and forced the Orioles to shorten their infield and outfield for a possible play at the plate. Mike Zunino drew a walk that loaded the bases with no outs. Jackson’s single ended it. Fernando Rodney (5-4) got the victory after pitching a scoreless 10th inning. Walker recovered from a long two-run first inning by pitching through the sixth with no further damage. He gave up two runs and five hits while walking one and striking out six. He probably deserved to win — just as he did in his last start at Colorado. Instead, he settled for a no-decision. Walker is 7-2 with a 3.33 ERA over his last 14 starts with 93 strikeouts and just 12 walks in 92 innings. Wilhelmsen inherited a three-run lead and breezed through the seventh inning and retired the first batter in the eighth before walking Gerardo Parra. Adam Jones then crushed a 2-1 fastball in the middle of the plate for a no-doubt homer to left. The lead was down to 5-4. Beimel replaced Wilhelmsen and gave up a game-tying homer to Chris Davis. It, too, was a no-doubter. Carson Smith replaced Beimel and retired the next two hitters. The Mariners missed a chance to answer after Miller opened the bottom of the inning with a four-pitch walk from reliever Brad Brach, but Zunino popped an attempted sacrifice bunt to first for an out. Miller was then thrown out stealing when Jackson swung over a down-and-in fastball. After Jackson reached on a throwing error by shortstop J.J. Hardy, the Orioles brought in lefty McFarland to face Kyle Seager. The left-on-left strategy produced a four-pitch walk. Franklin Gutierrez batted for Ketel Marte in what had been Nelson Cruz’s spot until the seventh inning, when Cruz departed because of neck spasms. Gutierrez grounded out. The Mariners battered long-time tormentor Chris Tillman, their former farmhand, for five runs and eight hits in 2 1/3 innings. He was 6-0 with a 2.09 ERA in seven previous starts against his former club. Cruz started a four-run first inning with a two-out homer. It extended his career-high hitting streak to 21 games and gave him the major-league lead with 34 homers. Robinson Cano and Seth Smith followed Cruz’s homer with singles before Mark Trumbo rocked a three-run homer. The Mariners led 4-2. That came after the Orioles cuffed Walker for two runs in the first inning with most of the damage coming with two outs. Walker issued a walk to Davis that put runners at first and second before Matt Wieters reached on an infield single to short. Miller fielded the ball in the hole and looked to third and second before throwing to first. Jonathan Schoop worked the count full before pulling a 95-mph fastball through the left side for a two-run single. Walker got the final out by out-racing Jimmy Paredes to first on a grounder to second. But it was a 33-pitch inning. The Mariners got one run back on Cruz’s 406-foot homer, which moved him one ahead of Angels outfielder Mike Trout for the major-league lead. Cano followed with a liner that struck Tillman and caromed into center field for a single. Tillman remained in the game and yielded a single to Smith before Trumbo teed off on a 1-0 slider for a 402-foot homer to left. All after Tillman retired the first two batters. The Mariners stretched their lead to 5-2 in the second after Miller led off with double off the glove of a diving Nolan Reimold in left. Miller went to third on Jackson’s single and scored on Seager’s sacrifice fly. Tillman exited after the Mariners put runners at second and third with one out in the third inning. Brian Matusz stranded both runners.