The high-volume, postgame beer shower has become a happy routine for the Seattle Mariners this season – celebrating everything from first home runs to career milestones – but Ken Griffey Jr. had been handing out the showers all year.

After the team’s 84th victory, and Junior’s 630th career home run, Junior got the shower.

“They had some fun,” Griffey said of his teammates, laughing. “There was beer and orange juice and cold water and maybe a little chocolate sauce. It was all good. It’s been fun here from day one.”

With fabulous pitching and a pinch of offense, the Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1, in front of a Safeco Field crowd of 24,391 in the team’s next-to-last game of the season Saturday

Manager Don Wakamatsu, having observed the beer shower – and Griffey’s screams throughout the process – was asked if his 39-year-old designated hitter is like a little kid.

“He is a little kid,” Wakamatsu said. “His swing looks young, too.”

Inevitably, Griffey was asked about 2010, about whether he wanted to come back for an encore of what has been a remarkable season in Seattle.

“We’re still kicking it around. It’s important that we finish the year out and worry about it later. We’ll see. I’m not in any rush,” he said. “We’ve got a long offseason and there’s going to be some changes.”

Then, he seemed to let his guard down just a bit.

“Hopefully, it works out,” Junior said.

To make two runs of offense enough, the Mariners needed all Ryan Rowland-Smith had left in his season, which was 62/3 innings pitched and one run allowed. From there, a bullpen without Mark Lowe and David Aardsma had to be creative – and near perfect.

It was.

Matched against a tough Texas lineup, Rowland-Smith won for the fifth time, dropping his earned run average from 3.91 to 3.74. He was at times dominant, at times a master of finesse.

And on one play, Rowland-Smith was spectacular.

Working on a shutout through five innings, he ran into trouble in the sixth and had Rangers at the corners with one out and cleanup hitter Marlon Byrd at the plate. Rowland-Smith threw a low fastball and got a ground ball shot back up the middle.

Leaping out of instinct, the lefty put his glove behind him and caught the ball as it passed between his legs. Then he turned it into an inning-ending double play.

“I’ve had enough balls go through my legs and into center field,” Rowland-Smith said. “It’s about time one landed in my glove.”

With every run at a premium, the Mariners had gone ahead on Junior’s fourth-inning home run, a low line drive into the right field stands, and added on in the fifth when Franklin Gutierrez singled home Josh Wilson.

Rowland-Smith took that into the seventh inning, where he got in his last jam – two men on base, no one out.

“Even in the seventh, when he was at about 100 pitches and in trouble, he got two outs that were huge,” Wakamatsu said. “Ryan’s going to be a force in our rotation next year.”

From there, the Mariners used relievers Shawn Kelley (one out), Garrett Olson (three outs) and – in the ninth – veteran Miguel Batista. Batista was the man with the most closing experience, 38 saves, although none this season.

With that crowd roaring behind him, Batista picked up his first of 2009, and the Mariners were 84-77.

Today, they will play the last game of the season, and as always fans will be left to wonder who will be back. Some Mariners, like third baseman Adrian Beltre and Batista, are about to become free agents.

Others won’t be brought back, or will be traded.

And then, there’s Griffey.

In a clubhouse that had been a disaster zone in 2008, Griffey and Mike Sweeney made sure younger players showed respect to their teammates and the game.

Junior being Junior, of course, there was also a lot of fun to be had, from beer showers to practical jokes.

When someone asked Griffey if he had any plans for what could be his final game at Safeco Field today, he didn’t hesitate.

“I thought about doing the Dennis Rodman thing, running off the field naked,” he cracked. “but I don’t think the family would go for that.”

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com

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