Johnson, Mariners win 11-inning Fenway thriller
LARRY LARUE; The News Tribune
BOSTON – There seems to be nothing these Seattle Mariners like more than a good, close game, probably because it’s rare when they play any other kind.
This is not a team to blow out the opposition, and because of its pitching, not one that’s easy to hammer – even for the Boston Red Sox.
So when the Mariners lost a late lead, scored twice in the 11th inning and gave one of those runs back, a Fenway Park crowd was disappointed by Seattle’s 7-6 victory over Boston.
The Mariners? They shrugged and started thinking about today’s game.
And as for all that chatter about being offensively challenged?
“We can hit,” Ronny Cedeño argued.
The Red Sox couldn’t argue, not after giving up 13 hits to the Mariners – including home runs by Cedeño and Jose Lopez – and a franchise record-tying three doubles to catcher Rob Johnson.
It was Johnson who delivered the winner in the 11th inning. He used his head, then his bat, to put the Mariners ahead.
“I’d never seen (Ramon) Ramirez throw, but I knew I was going to see something offspeed,” said Johnson, who raised his batting average from .187 to .203 Friday. “They weren’t going to challenge me with fastballs. So I took the first pitch and saw how his change-up moved.”
It was good thinking in a big situation. Tied at 5, the Mariners got a single from Franklin Gutierrerz, a walk by Ryan Langerhans and a sacrifice bunt from Chris Woodward to set the scene: Two on, one out and Johnson at the plate.
“I swung at the second pitch, and it wasn’t a strike,” Johnson said, disgusted. “I told myself to make him get a pitch up and to trust my hands to do the job.”
Ramirez put an offspeed pitch up, and Johnson lined it the other way into right field, scoring both runners for a 7-5 lead.
Game over? Oh, please.
Not this year. Not with these guys.
What began as Felix Hernandez’s first start since being named American League pitcher of the month for June was a back-and-forth affair all night. Hernandez gave up two first-inning runs, then allowed only one more through the seventh.
While Hernandez did that, his team came back, as it has so often this season.
Ichiro Suzuki singled home Johnson in the third inning, then Johnson doubled home Langerhans – who had another two-hit night in left field – and scored on Cedeño’s fourth home run.
“That first inning, they came out swinging at the first pitch, swinging at my fastball,” Hernandez said. “After that, I used my change-up, my breaking ball more. After the first inning, I said, ‘Go out there and pitch!’ and I did.”
After seven innings, Hernandez was done – “pretty damned tired,” he said.
When Lopez led off the eighth inning with a solo home run for a 5-3 lead, manager Don Wakamatsu went to Sean White, the normally reliable setup man.
White stumbled, giving up a one-out single and a walk, and was replaced by rookie Shawn Kelley, who got an out, then gave up a game-tying double to Nick Green.
“White had a couple of mechanical things we think we can fix quickly,” Wakamatsu said. “And Kelley gave up a 312-foot fly ball for a double off the Monster.”
Tied after eight, the Mariners went with another rookie, Chris Jakubauskas, who held Boston scoreless for two innings. In the 11th, after Johnson produced that two-run lead, it was time for David Aardsma.
Except it wasn’t.
“I had a little tenderness in my back after pitching (Thursday),” Aardsma said. “I could have gone out there, but they wanted to give me a day to get past it.”
So, who? Mark Lowe, who’d thrown two innings Thursday.
“I could have gone two more tonight,” Lowe said.
He didn’t have to – but it was close.
After getting two outs with a fastball that topped out at 98 mph, Lowe gave up a solo home run to George Kottaras that brought up J.D. Drew, who’d already hit one home run. Drew singled to get the game to the reigning American League MVP, Dustin Pedroia.
With that Fenway Park crowd chanting “MVP!” Lowe got Pedroia to ground into a fielder’s choice for his first save of the season.
Now 4-3 on their trip through Los Angeles, New York and Boston, this was the Mariners’ 34th one-run game of the 78-game season. They’ve now won 20 of those one-run games – about half of their 41 overall victories this season.
“The experience these guys are getting, in parks like this one, in games like these, is phenomenal,” Wakamatsu said. “Especially when they learn to win them. They don’t back down, they don’t give up – I never even see them discouraged in the dugout. It’s fun.”
And often, very close.
“I only gave up that last home run to give the crowd something to get excited about,” Lowe deadpanned. “Yeah, right.”
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com
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