O’Malley, Romero were in line to pitch for Mariners

When the Mariners trailed by 10 runs Thursday night in San Diego, manager Scott Servais did something he fundamentally opposes. He told a position player to warm up for a possible relief appearance.

Utilityman Shawn O’Malley began moving equipment in the indoor cages at Petco Park to get a feel for throwing off a mound and to try to throw a curve.

“Actually, I think that was my best pitch,” O’Malley said. “I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because the cage was low, and I had to get extended through it. But it felt good. I felt confident that if I went in there, I could throw it for strikes.

“I felt it was sharp. It was still, probably, a high school-level curveball, but to me it was nasty.”

Outfielder Stefen Romero was also on Servais’ list, although he wasn’t told to heat up. A day later, the possibility that he could have pitched Thursday stunned Romero.

“I guess I could have thrown meatballs up there,” Romero said.

It wasn’t necessary. The Mariners erased a 12-2 deficit by scoring five runs in the sixth inning and nine more in the seventh. Tellingly, perhaps, it was O’Malley and Romero who drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with RBI singles.

“(Thursday) night’s game went from pitching a position player to running your (back-end) guys out there,” Servais said. “That’s how crazy that game was last night.”

Nick Vincent, Joaquin Benoit and Steve Cishek closed out the 16-13 victory.

O’Malley was left to wonder what might have been.

“I haven’t done it since high school,” he said. “I was just trying to figure a way to throw strikes. Just trying to find a way to shorten up. Kind of like when you hit, you try to find the shortest way to the ball.

“I was trying to find the shortest way to the plate and make sure the ball went over it. If I’d gone in, it would have been, `OK, whatever happens, happens. I’m just going to throw the ball over the plate and let the defense take care of it.’”

Instead of gaining a career footnote by pitching, O’Malley now holds the distinction of driving in the go-ahead run in the biggest comeback victory in the Mariners’ 40-year history.

“That was way better,” he said. “I think I’d much rather do that.”

Magnificent seven

How rare were those seven straight two-out RBI singles Thursday by the Mariners in their nine-run seventh inning at San Diego?

It hasn’t happened since at least 1974, which represents the limits of the Stats Inc. data base. The previous high in that span was six by Texas on June 16, 1980 in the ninth inning of a 6-3 victory at Kansas City.

Clearing the bases

New York Mets third baseman David Wright will be out at least six weeks and perhaps a lot longer with a herniated disk in his neck. Wright plans to fly to California to see Dr. Robert Watkins for further evaluation to figure out if it’s possible to avoid surgery. …. San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence will undergo surgery for a right hamstring injury and is likely to be out eight weeks. Pence said he felt the hamstring pop running to first base trying to beat out an infield grounder on Wednesday. … Retired Padres closer Trevor Hoffman and Moises Alou will be the managers for the All-Star Futures Game on July 10 in San Diego.