The Associated Press
The Mariners' Mike Cameron slides safely into second base as Oakland Athletics shortstop Miguel Tejada watches the ball bounce away in the first inning Saturday night in Seattle. Cameron doubled on the play.

The Associated Press
The Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki lays down a bunt against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning on Saturday night at Safeco Field. Suzuki was out on the sacrifice, but he advanced Desi Relaford to second base on the play.

Oakland drops M's

Seattle slips out of first place with loss to Athletics

KIRBY ARNOLD, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Sunday, April 7, 2002

SEATTLE -- It's the ninth inning and the Seattle Mariners trail again.

Oh, if only this was the White Sox bullpen fueling a comeback effort.

This time, the Oakland A's did the late scoring and pitching in an 8-3 victory Saturday night at Safeco Field.

Comebacks, it turns out, aren't quite as easy against the team that's supposed to make this a tight division race.

"The secret is not to fall behind," Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "It can happen, but if that's what you expect, you're not going to go very far."

This one sent the Mariners backwards a step as Oakland nudged back into first place in the American League West Division by a half game.

The A's cranked up their home-run power with three blasts off Mariners starter Freddy Garcia and kept up the pressure by scoring seven runs in the final four innings.

Jeremy Giambi, Miguel Tejada and Frank Menechino each homered and the A's scored twice in the sixth inning, three times in the seventh and twice again in the eighth.

Garcia overcame early sloppiness by his defense to take a 3-1 lead after five innings, but he couldn't escape the damage from two late pitches that the A's pounded over the fence. Tejada hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning and Menechino lined a two-run homer in the seventh.

Piniella lifted Garcia with nobody out in the seventh after he had thrown 117 pitches.

"He threw too many pitches," Piniella said. "The pitch count was way too high for the innings he's pitching. You should be able to pitch a complete game with 115, 118, 120 pitches. He's just getting into the seventh."

By the time the Mariners batted in the ninth -- which they established as their comeback inning with Wednesday's four-run rally to beat the White Sox -- they were too far behind.

Oakland closer Billy Koch struck out two, including the struggling Ichiro Suzuki, to finish a frustrating night for the Mariners offense.

They had the bases loaded on a wild Mark Mulder in the first inning, but Ruben Sierra grounded into a double play to end it. The M's, after scoring three times in the third when Bret Boone and Edgar Martinez hit RBI singles and Carlos Guillen walked with the bases loaded, left the bases loaded when Dan Wilson grounded out.

"The story tonight was we didn't hold a lead and more importantly we didn't really do anything when we had opportunities," Piniella said. "Mulder's a good pitcher and he wiggled out of it."

Still, Garcia had a 3-1 lead and he seemed on course for a tight victory as he settled into a rhythm. He even escaped two errors by Guillen in the third inning and retired seven straight A's through the fifth.

In the sixth, the A's got to Garcia again.

David Justice led off with a single and Tejada jumped on a hanging breaking pitch, lining it just over the right field fence for a two-run homer and a 3-3 tie.

Garcia got out of that inning with no more damage, but he couldn't hold it together in the seventh. He walked Giambi, then threw a pitch in Menechino's hot zone. The Oakland second baseman lined it to left, again barely clearing the fence, for another two-run homer and a 5-3 A's lead.

Garcia's night was finished after the next hitter, Scott Hatteberg, stroked a single to right.

Piniella brought in right-hander Jeff Nelson, who produced a fielder's choice grounder by Justice for the first out. Tejada hit a fly to right for the second out, but Justice stole second and Terrance Long looped a double into the left-center gap that made it a 6-3 game.

The A's made it 8-3 in the eighth when they smacked reliever Ryan Franklin around for three hits, including a two-run triple down the right-field line that bounced off a railing and away from Ichiro Suzuki.

The Mariners, who beat the White Sox on Wednesday after trailing 6-3 in the ninth, couldn't pull off such a finish this time.

After Mulder settled down from an eventful first two innings, he retired 10 straight Mariners before he walked Mike Cameron with one out in the seventh.

Right-hander Jim Mecir took over from there and allowed two walks but no hits in 1 2/3 innings, and Koch finished off the Mariners in the ninth.

Of the Mariners' five hits, two were infield singles, including a third-inning roller by Suzuki that broke an 0-for-6 skid. Suzuki, who went 0-for-5 Friday for only the eighth time in his two seasons with the

Mariners, finished 1-for-4 Saturday with a sacrifice bunt and is batting .250.

A's 8, Mariners 3

- Record: 3-2.

- Today: Oakland (Hudson 0-0) at Seattle (Moyer 0-0), 5:05 p.m. (ESPN).

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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