After a 6-1 deficit in the third inning, the Seattle Mariners pulled ahead to win the series opener against the Oakland A’s on May 1st in front of 25,760 anxious fans at Safeco field,
“It is great to win that ballgame, especially after being down by five runs,” manager Don Wakamatsu said after the game. “It was outstanding to cap it off with Lopez’s 14-pitch at-bat. That was pretty special.”
After reaching third on walks by Endy Chavez and Mike Sweeney, Ichiro Suzuki scores on a sacrifice fly to right field to give Seattle an early lead in the bottom of the first inning.
It was short lived, however as Oakland rallied in the third to plate six runners. Ryan Sweeney came out and hit a double. With two outs, Jason Giambi walked before Matt Holliday singled on a ground ball to center field to score Sweeney and Giambi.
Carlos Silva walked, and Kurt Suzuki doubled on a line drive to left. Travis Buck got a walk off of Silva and Bobby Crosby smacked a triple to drive Cust, Suzuki, and Buck over the plate.
Seattle added two in the bottom of the frame on Jose Lopez’s two RBI single to drive in Sweeney and Adrian Beltre.
Mike Sweeney walked off a pitch by Miguel Batista in the fifth inning , then scores on Russell Branyan’s homer on a fly ball to center field. Kenji Johima singles on a grounder before Gutierrez smacks the second homer of the bottom half.
Matt Holiday knotted the score in the seventh when he smashed a homer off of Sean White, but in the ninth inning Seattle came back to win the game on Jose Lopez’s RBI base hit to plate Chavez.
I have never had an at-bat like that,” Lopez said. “After about six pitches, I was pretty relaxed. He threw me everything, and the more pitches I saw, the more confident I got. I told myself, ‘This is my time to win the game.’”
Russ Springer took the mound to close the inning, allowing Endy Chavez to single before walking Sweeney. Chavez advanced to third on Beltre’s fly out, and Springer intentionally walks Branyan. With Bases loaded and two outs, Lopez and Springer battled for 14 pitches, and nine foul balls, before Lopez landed the single.
“I just wanted him to put it in play because, at that point, I was about out of bullets,” Springer said. “I’d have liked for him to pop up one of those balls he kept fouling off, but you just do what you do.
“You go out there and give it everything you’ve got and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.”
Shawn Kelley was credited with his first Major League win, pitching 1.2 innings, and retiring all four batters he faced in the eight and ninth.
Dana Eveland suffered the loss, allowing seven runs on ten hits in just 4 2/3 innings, losing the third inning five run cushion to Branyan and Gutierrez in the fifth.
Jerry Woods is a writer for Sportsfantreasures.com. Check out his Seattle Mariners merchandise or Seattle Mariners Christmas Ornaments
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