The Seattle Mariners had a five-run inning, the Boston Red Sox a four-run inning – and in between the two teams played some of the most exciting baseball seen at Safeco Field all season Saturday.
There were a half dozen moments that might have changed the outcome of Seattle’s 5-4 victory, but one that a crowd of 41,326 probably took home with them to think about for another week.
It came in the fourth inning on a Dustin Pedroia fly ball to right field with Jacoby Ellsbury on third base.
Ichiro Suzuki caught the ball and threw a one-hop strike to catcher Josh Bard, who turned and tagged the sliding runner – only to take an Ellsbury knee to the chin. Bard went down and umpire Mark Ripperger called Ellsbury safe.
Manager Eric Wedge exploded out of the Mainers dugout.
“I said my piece right away, I told ’em what I saw and they asked me to give them a second,” Wedge said of the umpiring crew.
As trainers worked on Bard, the umpiring crew huddled together, then waved Boston manager Terry Francona out of the dugout and explained to him that Bard had not dropped the ball after making the tag.
The new ruling: Out.
“Ichiro did a great job of getting behind the ball and made a perfect throw,” Wedge said, “but the separator there was Josh. Just a hell of a play that turned out to be even bigger than it seemed at the time.”
Consider this: If the play stands and a Boston run had scored, it would have been a 5-1 lead with a Red Sox runner at third base. Instead, the Sox didn’t score until the sixth inning.
For Felix Hernandez, his teammates and however many members of that crowd that were Mariners fans, this one was a playoff-atmosphere game in a year in which there will be no post-season.
Five first-inning runs against Boston’s Josh Beckett, punctuated by home runs from Ichiro and Casper Wells, sandwiched around a two-run single from Mike Carp, appeared to signal the beginning of a Seattle rout.
The Mariners never scored again.
And after facing only nine Red Sox hitters through three innings, Hernandez seemed on the verge of another dominant performance – then had to struggle every inning to keep Boston at bay.
Holding on for a one-run win against the team that leads the American League with 73 wins, the Mariners – who now have 51 – got four double plays over the first eight innings, then a 1-2-3 ninth from closer Brandon League.
Along the way, there were moments that seemed to take the breath from everyone in the park.
David Ortiz hit what appeared to be a two-out, game-tying home run in the eighth inning – a mammoth shot that caromed off the Hit It Here Café – but it was ruled foul by first base umpire Brian O’Nora.
With a tiring Hernandez trying to get through the seventh inning, Ellsbury singled with one out, then tried to steal second base. Dustin Ackley, moving to cover the bag, fielded a hard-hit Carl Crawford ground ball, stepped on the bag and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.
“Against a good-hitting team like that, any time you can get two outs with one pitch, it’s big,” Wedge said.
The Mariners were outhit by the Red Sox, 10-9, but had four extra-base hits to Boston’s three. That’s not normally Seattle baseball, but on this night the Mariners played with the big dogs and held on for a win.
Ichiro’s first-pitch home run in the first inning was the 34th of his career leading off a game for Seattle.
Franklin Gutierrez singled, Ackley doubled and Carp extending his hitting streak to 13 games with a two-run single that put Beckett and the Sox behind, 3-0.
One out later Wells, who began the night batting .309 as a Mariner, hit his sixth home run of the season to make it 5-0.
Felix held that score into the sixth – then lost all but one run of it.
Marco Scutaro tripled and Ellsbury followed with a home run. With one out and a shift on, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez rolled a perfect bunt single up along the third-base line.
Pedroia followed with a home run to right-center field and it was 5-4.
Boston put the potential tying run aboard against Felix in the seventh, then against Jamey Wright in the eighth, and was turned away in each inning by a double play.
League blew through the Sox in the ninth for his 28th save, preserving Felix’s 11th win.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com
TODAY
Boston (Tim Wakefield: 6-4, 4.92 ERA) at Seattle (Charlie Furbush: 1-1, 7.20), 1:10 p.m., Root Sports, 710-AM
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