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Rays outlast Mariners in 11 innings

Aug 10, 2008 - 8:19 AM By Paul Lowenberg PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Dioner Navarro's sacrifice fly with in the 11th inning gave the Tampa Bay Rays an 8-7 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

Miguel Batista (4-12) walked Ben Zobrist to open the 11th. Zobrist stole second and moved to third on a groundout. Navarro followed with his run-scoring fly ball to give the Rays their ninth win in their last 11 games.

"It was just a bunch of little things and that kind of epitomized our night," Zobrist said. "Late in the game, we got in some tough spots but we did some little things right and stayed in the game. That's how you give yourself a chance to win."

Troy Percival worked a scoreless 11th inning for his 26th save and 350th of his career. The game took 4 hours, 26 minutes.

"We kept battling," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "With all the bumps and bruises we've got going on and for our guys to play that kind of a game, I'm very impressed with their entire attitude right now."

It was the 70th win of the year for the surprising Rays (70-46), matching the franchise-high number set in 2004. The win kept Tampa Bay 3 1/2 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox (67-50) in their battle for first in the American League East.

"It's nice, but we have to keep blazing new trails," Maddon said. "We've got to raise the bar even higher. I don't want to make 70 wins a goal. It's nice to get past that and do what we are here to do, and that's win a pennant."

Ichiro Suzuki had four hits, including a home run, and drove in three runs to pace the Mariners' 17-hit attack.

Chad Bradford (3-4), who was making his first appearance with the Rays since being acquired from Baltimore on Thursday, gave up a single to Yuniesky Betancourt leading off the 10th. Ichiro singled him to second and Willie Bloomquist hit a fielder's choice grounder that retired Ichiro but moved Betancourt to third.

Bloomquist suffered a strained right hamstring on the play and had to be helped from the field.

With the Mariners out of position players, pitcher Jarrod Washburn went in to pinch run for Bloomquist.

Raul Ibanez was given an intentional pass to load the bases and B.J. Upton came in from center field to play behind second base and create a five-man infield. Adrian Beltre ended the inning when he grounded into a 5-2-3 double play.

"Bradford was unbelievable," Zobrist said. "It absolutely didn't seem like it fazed him at all being in that situation and it was phenomenal the way we came out of that."

The Rays had a 7-5 lead when Bryan LaHair opened the eighth with a ground rule double off reliever Dan Wheeler and pinch-hitter Jeff Clement doubled him home. Ichiro hit a one-out single to tie the game 7-7 before Trever Miller came on to retire Ibanez and end the inning.

Trailing 5-1, the Rays struck for six runs with two outs in the sixth to take a 7-5 lead. A double, a walk and an infield hit loaded the bases and starter Ryan Rowland-Smith was relieved by Cesar Jimenez, who then gave up four consecutive hits.

Akinori Iwamura singled in the first run and Upton and Crawford followed with back-to-back, two-run doubles. Carlos Pena singled to right scoring Crawford, but was out at second on a relay throw from rookie right fielder Wladimir Balantien to end the inning.

Matt Garza, who entered the game with a 9.75 ERA in three career starts against the Mariners, was roughed up for five runs and six hits with a walk through the first two innings.

Ichiro wasted no time in extending his hitting streak to 15 games when he led off the game with his fifth home run. A walk, a double and Beltre's run-scoring groundout gave Seattle a 2-0 lead.

The Mariners added three more runs in the second for a 5-0 advantage with four consecutive hits, including run-scoring singles by Betancourt and Ichiro, that were followed by a double-play grounder to score the third run of the inning.

Gabe Gross got a run back with his ninth homer leading off the third to make it 5-1.

"There were some ugly things and there were some great things," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said after his team lost for the seventh time in nine extra-inning games. "There are a lot of positives to draw from as we lose these tough ones like that. But that one was just about as bad as it gets."