SEATTLE – Bob Melvin said one of the hardest things he’s done as a manager, besides conceding that the Seattle Mariners’ season is toast, was to sit Edgar Martinez.
The Mariners’ youth movement dictated he make that tough call, and Martinez became a spectator for the better part of the past three games.
Melvin couldn’t resist in the ninth inning Monday, and his 41-year-old designated hitter became his most valued pinch hitter.
Martinez homered off Boston Red Sox closer Keith Foulke to tie the score, and the Mariners won it in the 11th when another struggling veteran, Bret Boone, hit a grand slam homer for an 8-4 victory.
“It’s been tough this year, so this feels good,” Martinez said.
Nobody needed to tell Boone about that.
“There’s been a lot of frustration this year,” said Boone, who has experienced his share with a .233 average, just 11 homers and 36 RBI entering Monday. “You forget how tough it is when you haven’t been through adversity in a while like we have.”
Their chance of contending long gone, the Mariners are looking at their youth these days and the arrival of Tacoma Rainiers DH Bucky Jacobsen last week meant Martinez would lose at-bats.
He hadn’t played since Saturday, but when Monday’s game came down to the Mariners’ final swings, Melvin made sure Martinez got one of them.
Moments after catcher Miguel Olivo’s home run pulled the Mariners within a run, Foulke got ahead of Martinez with a first-pitch strike. His next pitch got too much of the plate, and Martinez got all of it.
He drove it over the fence in right-center field for his eighth home run this season and just the third pinch-hit HR of his career.
“Everybody had goosebumps,” Melvin said. “It makes everybody feel good. To come in after having not been in a couple of days is amazing. It’s just classic Edgar.”
Martinez also homered as a pinch hitter on July 29, 1999 at Kansas City, and May 20, 1993 at Texas.
“This felt good because of the way it has gone the whole year,” Martinez said. “Doing something positive like this makes me feel really good.”
Foulke has given up back-to-back homers just twice in his career, both times against the Mariners. Martinez and John Olerud did it Oct. 3, 2000.
Olivo and Martinez eased the sting of a strikeout spree that featured a parade of Mariners walking back to the dugout. Red Sox pitchers fanned 16, including Justin Leone and Jolbert Cabrera three times each.
And to think, Pedro Martinez isn’t pitching this series.
Bronson Arroyo, a 27-year-old right-hander who hasn’t pitched a full season in the major leagues, used his slider to keep the Mariners off balance and off the bases. He set a career high with 12 strikeouts, including a stretch from the third to the seventh innings when all 11 Mariners outs were by strikeout.
Despite his dominance, and the wildness of Mariners starter Ron Villone, the score was tied through seven innings.
Villone, erratic enough to keep the Red Sox off balance, gave up only a run in the fourth inning when Manny Ramirez drew a leadoff walk and scored after back-to-back singles by Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek.
The Mariners tied the score in the sxith when Randy Winn doubled to right field and scored on Boone’s liner off Arroyo’s leg that bounced into right field for a double.
Villone, making just his second start of the season, got the game to the seventh, when the Mariners’ young relievers took over.
Left-hander George Sherrill gave up a single but nothing else in the seventh, and he started the eighth with a strikeout of Red Sox slugger David Ortiz.
Right-hander J.J. Putz took over to face Manny Ramirez and immediately got into trouble. Ramirez grounded a single into left field and Putz walked Garciaparra.
He tried to throw a first-pitch fastball past Varitek, who crushed it over the wall in right-center for a three-run homer and a 4-1 Red Sox lead.
Putz got the final two outs then gave way to Julio Mateo, who held the Red Sox to one hit in the next 22/3 innings.
Mike Myers got Johnny Damon for the final out in the top of the 11th before the Mariners won it off Curtis Leskanic.
Olivo led off with an infield single, Dave Hansen walked, Ichiro Suzuki dropped a sacrifice bunt and, with first base open, Leskanic intentionally walked Winn.
Leskanic got a quick strike on Boone, then threw a fastball down the middle that Boone didn’t miss.
He pulled it into the Mariner’s bullpen beyond the left-center field fence for a grand slam that won the game and, for one night, ended a lot of frustration.
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