Late runs save M's from another loss

It looked suspiciously like another in a long line of maddening losses, the Mariners' execution so poor early in the game yesterday that manager Bob Melvin was already geared up for the post-game butt chewing.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Seattle's defeat No. 74. On the strength of gutty pitching by Gil Meche and the sort of sustained clutch hitting that has eluded the Mariners so often this season, it was transformed into victory No. 44, 7-3 over the New York Yankees.

The Mariners trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, with the formidable Yankees bullpen looming in front of them. But that inning turned out to be one for them to savor. They knocked out Kevin Brown, jumped on three Yankees relievers, sent 11 men to the plate, and scored six runs to break the game open and prevent a Yankees sweep.

"Usually, after the sixth inning, it's very tough to beat that team," Melvin said. "For us to come back and do all those things after what we were struggling and fighting early in the game, it's a testament to a team that plays hard every day."

The Mariners played hard, but not particularly inspired, yesterday. At least until the seventh, when, appropriately enough, Edgar Martinez singled home the go-ahead run in his last start against the Yankees.

Before that, they had a baserunning miscue, when Miguel Olivo was late out of the box on a drive into the left-field corner he thought was foul (a play that ended with Olivo being thrown out at second); they had a Willie Bloomquist throwing error that led to one unearned run, and a seemingly playable fly ball by Hideki Matsui that Ichiro couldn't track, leading to another run.

More troublesome to Melvin, however, was Seattle's glaring lack of situational hitting — particularly in the fourth inning, when the team had runners on second and third with no outs but couldn't score. Scott Spiezio, still caught in a massive season-long slump, popped out to shortstop, and so did Olivo.

"The early stuff was ugly," Melvin said. "We were certainly going to have a chat about that, because we're leaving guys out there, where all we have to do, situationally, is try to stay up the middle just a little bit. We just have to put the ball on the ground. Even a double play is going to bring a run in.

"It gets frustrating. You usually don't beat a team like that, New York, without taking what they're actually giving you. And they're giving us runs right there with their infield back. And we're not taking advantage."

But then came the seventh, when the Mariners executed their way right to the Yankees' demise, to the delight of the third consecutive sellout crowd (46,335) at Safeco Field.

Olivo had two hits in the inning, a single to start it and a two-run single to cap it. That helped compensate for his baserunning gaffe in the second inning, when he pulled up on his grounder down the third-base line — on the foul side of third to most eyes except third-base umpire Alfonso Marquez's.

"Everyone knows it was a foul ball," Olivo said. "That's why I freeze up there. I got lucky and they gave me that hit. I felt bad because I made a mistake and got thrown out (at second). I felt a little sad, but that's part of the game. When you make an error, you have to let it go and make up somewhere else."

Olivo did just that in the seventh, coming around to score on Jose Lopez's double. After Brown struck out Bloomquist trying to bunt, Yankees manager Joe Torre brought in left-hander C.J. Nitkowski to face Ichiro, who had homered off Brown to start the game.

But Nitkowski walked Ichiro, and Randy Winn followed with a single off Paul Quantrill to tie the score. Martinez, hero of so many Mariners wins over New York, came through again with a single to bring home Ichiro.

The Yankees' third reliever of the inning, Scott Proctor, didn't do any better. He walked Bret Boone to force in a run and gave up Olivo's two-run single.

Meche, meanwhile, followed his eight-inning, two-hit effort against the Twins with another gem. He limited the Yankees to two earned runs over seven innings.

On a rare day when the Mariners competed successfully, Melvin will pull his punches on the lecture he planned for their early lapses.

"It will come up in our hitters meeting," he said, "but it might have been a little more animated if we had not come back and won the game."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com