Three Oklahoma pitchers had shut down the Tacoma offense on two hits. The Rainiers hadn’t had a baserunner since the third inning, and had only two all game.

All that changed with two outs in the ninth inning Monday.

RedHawks reliever Kaz Fukumori was an out away from closing it out when Rainiers leadoff hitter Tug Hulett slapped a single to left field.

Three more hits in a row produced two runs and Tacoma escaped with a 2-1 victory on getaway day at Cheney Stadium.

“It took all 27 outs to do it,” Tacoma manager Daren Brown said. “To string four hits in a row, it’s really hard to see that coming.”

But it did.

Ryan Feierabend had turned in yet another solid outing on the mound for Tacoma, but he was on the hook for the hard-luck loss in front of an enthusiastic afternoon crowd of 4,405 pumped up by area school children at the ballpark as a reward after WASL testing.

The difference was a leadoff home run in the second inning by Oklahoma’s Nate Gold.

“They threw some good arms at us,” Rainiers center fielder Jeremy Reed said.

Reed’s single, the third of the four in a row in the ninth, scored Hulett to tie the game. “I was just fortunate to get the opportunity in the ninth and come through.”

Robinson Tejada needed just 66 pitches to shut down the Rainiers on two hits over six innings in his first start of the season for the RedHawks.

Tejada, who came into the game with an 0-1 record and a 5.19 ERA in six relief appearances, gave way to Cameron Lowe, who threw two scoreless innings.

Fukumori got two outs in the ninth before he gave up singles to Hulett and Matt Tuiasosopo. Oklahoma manager Bobby Jones lifted him in favor of left-hander Bill White to face the left-handed hitting Reed, who promptly bounced a single up the middle.

That brought first baseman Brian LaHair to the plate with Tuiasosopo at third representing the winning run.

LaHair pounded a pitch on a line to left that fell just in front of a diving John Mayberry to allow Tuiasosopo to score.

“In that situation, if it weren’t for those first three guys I don’t get an opportunity,” LaHair said. “They came up with big two-out hits. But we have that kind of offense.”

It’s Jakubauskas time

Is he the next George Sherrill for the Seattle Mariners?

The meteoric rise of Chris Jakubauskas makes its latest stop today in Des Moines, Iowa, where the newest member of the Rainiers will meet his teammates after being promoted from Double-A West Tennessee.

Like Sherrill, who spent five seasons in the independent leagues before Seattle purchased his contract, Jakubauskas spent a similar time pitching in independent leagues before the Mariners purchased his contract in June 2007.

Jakubauskas will have little time to think about his promotion, however. He will start for Tacoma against the Cubs, the first game of the Rainiers’ eight-game road trip.

From 2003 to 2005, Jakubauskas played for Florence and Ohio Valley of the independent Frontier League. It was at Florence that Jakubauskas was converted from the first baseman/outfielder he was at the University of Oklahoma to pitcher.

The Mariners purchased his contract last year from the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association, where Jakubauskas was 6-0 with a 2.42 ERA.

To date in 2008, Jakubauskas has compiled a 3-0 record with a minuscule 0.83 ERA in 32 2/3 innings with West Tennessee.

On tap

The Rainiers open a four-game stay in Iowa with a 5:05 p.m. game today. Their newest member, Jakubauskas (0-0, 0.00), will oppose the Cubs’ newest face in Rich Hill (0-0, 0.00). Hill was sent down after a disastrous outing with the parent Chicago Cubs on Saturday, an outing in which he faced just six batters and walked four of them.