Mariners catch break, catch up
After blown call, Beltre HR wins it
NEW YORK -- A blown call and a big swing by Adrian Beltre against Mariano Rivera helped the Seattle Mariners gain a comeback victory.
Beltre hit a tiebreaking homer off Rivera in the ninth inning, and Seattle took advantage of a huge break on a not-even-close play at second base to beat the New York Yankees, 3-2, last night.
"We'll take it," Willie Bloomquist said. "It's just a good thing there's no instant replay in baseball."
A late rally gave the Mariners a four-game split at Yankee Stadium and cost Matt DeSalvo a win in his impressive major league debut.
One night after Roger Clemens's big announcement that he'll pitch in pinstripes this season, New York got seven innings of three-hit ball from DeSalvo. The righthander walked three and left with a 2-1 lead before an incorrect call by second base umpire Gerry Davis helped Seattle tie the score.
Jose Vidro broke his bat on an infield single with two outs in the eighth against Kyle Farnsworth. Bloomquist ran for Vidro and stole second, though replays showed he was clearly out -- by at least a foot -- on a strong throw by catcher Jorge Posada to second baseman Robinson Cano.
Yankees manager Joe Torre wasn't around to argue -- he was serving a one-game suspension for his role in a skirmish between the teams Sunday. Bench coach Don Mattingly, running the team in Torre's absence, never budged from the dugout.
"You can't see it. The guys out there didn't really argue," Mattingly said, sitting in Torre's office chair.
Given another chance, the Mariners capitalized. Kenji Johjima, moved from seventh in the lineup to the No. 3 spot, looped a soft single to right that drove in Bloomquist.
The boos from the crowd of 47,424 were probably directed more at Davis than Farnsworth. After seeing the replay, a gracious Davis admitted he missed the call.
Rivera (1-3) retired his first two batters in the ninth before Beltre, dropped from second to seventh in the order, drove a high pitch over the left-center fence for his fifth home run.
It was the second homer of the season off Rivera, who gave up three all of last year. Lacking regular work, he has an 8.44 ERA.
George Sherrill (1-0) struck out two in a hitless eighth for the win, and J.J. Putz got three outs for his seventh save in seven chances.
Light-hitting Doug Mientkiewicz put the Yankees ahead, 2-1, with a two-out RBI double in the fifth.
By putting DeSalvo on the mound, the injury-ravaged Yankees became the first team in major league history to use 10 starting pitchers in its first 30 games.
DeSalvo gave up a double to his first hitter, Ichiro Suzuki, who scored on Raul Ibanez's two-out single. 