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Mariners use biggest inning of season to down Yankees

May 5, 2007 - 3:56 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- In a half hour, the Seattle Mariners had their most productive inning of the season and the New York Yankees continued their inconsistent pitching.

Yuniesky Betancourt had a go-ahead two-run double in an eight-run fifth inning as the Mariners pounded out 20 hits in a 15-11 victory over the Yankees in the opener of a four-game series Friday.

Seattle won for the eighth time in 10 games and overcame deficits of 5-0 and 8-6. The Mariners also won for just the fourth time in their last 15 visits to Yankee Stadium and did so by getting contributions from every member of their lineup.

Every Mariner had at least one hit but the most effective part of the order was Kenji Johjima, Betancourt and Jose Lopez, who were a combined 8-for-15 with nine RBI.

"It takes a whole team to win ballgames but it was great to see those two young guys and Johjima, those three (guys at) the bottom of the lineup doing their job in very key situations because the end of the game was still close," Seattle designated hitter Jose Vidro said. "They came up big for us and we came up with the top of the lineup and things got a lot easier for the guys hitting behind them because there were guys on base and they had to pitch to us.

"It's good, it's contributions from everybody," Mariners right fielder Jose Guillen said. "It's a great win."

Johjima and Lopez homered off Yankees starter Kei Igawa. Johjima connected in the second and Lopez homered in the fourth but each played prominent roles in the fifth.

Johjima forged an 8-8 tie with a single to right and Betancourt put Seattle ahead for good by lining a 3-1 pitch off center fielder Johnny Damon's head.

The Mariners were hardly done as they sent 13 men to the plate against Igawa, Colter Bean and Luis Vizcaino. The three pitchers combined to throw 46 pitches and Bean took the loss by allowing Betancourt's double.

"It means that it's good," Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre said of the outburst. "It means that our guys feel more comfortable swinging the bat and hitting in key situations and with people in scoring position which is exactly what you want to do right now."

"(It's a) helpless (feeling) because you know you don't want to go through your whole bullpen," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Bean (0-1) was so ineffective that Vizcaino replaced him after he fell behind Lopez 2-0. Lopez finished the at-bat with a two-run single to center and three batters later Raul Ibanez singled to right to cap the inning.

"Spectacular," Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said. "We worked got into good counts. The kid Bean came in and we were patient enough to let him kind of bury himself. That was good. I thought we were patient to the point where we got into good counts."

The Yankees opened a seven-game homestand coming off a three-game sweep in Texas that featured solid outings from Philip Hughes, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte. They were hopeful that Igawa would continue the trend, especially when they scored five times in the bottom of the first off Cha Seung-Baek.

Jorge Posada highlighted the inning with a two-run double and Melky Cabrera capped it with an RBI single. After Igawa gave up home runs to Johjima and Adrian Beltre, the Yankees took a 6-3 lead on Hideki Matsui's solo home run in the third.

The Mariners tied it in the fourth on Betancourt's RBI double and Lopez's two-run home run. But the Yankees went ahead 8-6 on Rodriguez's two-run double off Eric O'Flaherty.

The outburst overshadowed a sub-par outing by Baek, who is filling in for the injured Felix Hernandez. Baek lasted 3 2/3 innings and was charged with seven runs and eight hits.

Despite giving up Rodriguez's hit, O'Flaherty (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings for his first career victory. George Sherill gave up Damon's three-run home run in the seventh and rookie Brendon Morrow tossed a hitless eighth but gave up consecutive one-out walks to Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera in the ninth.

Closer J.J. Putz came on for the final two outs and loaded the bases when he allowed a base hit to pinch hitter Jason Giambi. But he retired Damon on a popout to first and got Jeter to ground out on the first pitch for his sixth save in as many opportunities.

"You try to look at the positives," Jeter said. "We didn't give up. Today we just couldn't stop them."

Igawa lasted four-plus innings and was rocked for eight runs and nine hits. It was the shortest start of his brief tenure as a Yankee and the least effective.

"I thought I threw OK today," Igawa said through an interpreter. "I had a couple of at-bats where the ball went through the infielders and another at-bat that went for a home run. But overall I thought I threw good."