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Mariners edge A's for rare victory

Sep 13, 2007 - 7:04 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Yuniesky Betancourt came through to give the Seattle Mariners a rare victory.

Betancourt had a game-winning RBI single in the ninth inning and the Mariners won for just the third time in their last 18 contests with a 6-5 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night at Safeco Field.

Pinch runner Charlton Jimerson scored from second on Betancourt's soft liner to center field off of Andrew Brown (2-2).

"I knew I had to stay in the strike zone because they were going to be good pitches," Betancourt said through an interpreter. "I just put a good swing on it and followed through."

Adam Jones belted a pinch-hit home run off on a 1-2 pitch from Oakland reliever Alan Embree to tie the game, 5-5, in the bottom of the eighth inning.

"He had a great at bat against me," Embree said. "I had him where I wanted and made the pitch I wanted and he was still able to get the job done."

J.J. Putz (3-1) got the win for the Mariners with a perfect ninth.

"We've been struggling lately," Jones said. "I hope we can ride this (win) for the rest of the season and make it interesting."

Seattle took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning following a strong outing from starter Miguel Batista, who worked six innings and allowed two earned runs on eight hits before turning the game over to reliever Eric O'Flaherty.

The lefthander managed to retire only one of the four batters he faced, allowing base hits to Shannon Stewart and Nick Swisher and a walk to Jack Cust to load the bases. After Jon Huber struck out Mark Ellis, pinch-hitter Mike Piazza delivered a two-run single off George Sherrill giving Oakland a 5-4 advantage.

Piazza was 0-for-5 as a pinch-hitter coming into his seventh inning at bat.

Oakland starter Dan Haren worked 6 2/3 innings and was in line for the victory after allowing four runs on 12 hits while striking out six.

"Dan Haren pitched very well," Oakland manager Bob Geren said. "He battled into the seventh. He threw the ball pretty well."

The Mariners had taken the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Betancourt singled and scored on an Ichiro Suzuki single to center.

Stewart led the Oakland attack reaching base five times with four hits and a walk. He also doubled, stole a base and scored three runs for Oakland.

Jose Vidro had three hits for Seattle including a pair of Doubles. The Seattle designated hitter has hit in eight of his last nine games posting a .394 (13-for-33) batting average.

With the victory Seattle remains 6 games behind the Yankees in the American League Wild Card race.

"This (win) is well deserved," Seattle manager John McLaren said. "It's a great win. Hopefully, we can build from this and start relaxing."