• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Beltre homers off Rivera, lifts Mariners past Yankees

May 8, 2007 - 4:23 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- The lineup changes by Seattle manager Mike Hargrove did not pay off until his team faced the New York Yankees' bullpen.

After Kenji Johjima hit a game-tying two-out single in the top of the eighth inning off Kyle Farnsworth, Adrian Beltre hit a solo home run with two outs in the ninth off Mariano Rivera as the Mariners salvaged a split of their four-game series with a 3-2 victory over the Yankees.

On Friday, the Mariners scored 15 runs on 20 hits in a 15-11 victory. Since then, they managed just five hits and were outscored, 13-1, in that last two games.

That prompted Hargrove to move Johjima from seventh to third and Beltre from second to seventh in the batting order.

With two outs in the ninth, Beltre deposited the first pitch by Rivera (1-3) over the left-center field fence.

"(It was) my first hit (off him)," said Beltre, who had struck out in his previous at-bat against Rivera. "I wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere in the gap. I know what kind of pitcher Rivera is, you don't want to start taking pitches. He threw me a first one up over the plate and I was able to make contact.

"It's a great feeling. It doesn't matter who is on the mound. When you hit in the ninth in a tie ballgame, you want to hit a homer. It's a great feeling because you're giving your team the lead in that situation and when it comes off a future Hall of Famer, it's even better."

It was the second ninth-inning home run allowed by Rivera, who has an 8.44 ERA and just three saves. On April 22 in Oakland, he gave up a game-winning home run to Marco Scutaro.

"It seemed like the ball ran over the middle of the plate and up," catcher Jorge Posada said. "It's one of those things. He's been pitching good and doing a lot of things well. He doesn't have a save situation there so it's a completely different mind-set, but Mo's been throwing good."

The failure by the bullpen to preserve the slim lead failed to push the Yankees to the .500 mark for the first time since April 21.

It also took the luster off an outstanding performance by rookie starter Matt DeSalvo, who allowed one run and three hits in seven innings in his major league debut.

Pitching coach Ron Guidry told the 26-year-old righthander he will start Saturday in Seattle.

"It is a shame," said Don Mattingly, who was serving as acting manager with Joe Torre serving a one-game suspension due to Sunday's near-brawl. "It was a great game for him, a confidence builder. He threw strikes, changed speeds and went after batters."

DeSalvo, who was not even on the 40-man roster before Monday, became the 10th different starter for the Yankees, setting a major league record. He allowed a leadoff double to Ichiro Suzuki and a two-out RBI single to Raul Ibanez.

After opening the third with consecutive walks to Jose Lopez and Suzuki, he retired 14 of the final 16 hitters before being lifted.

"When I came out of the game, I thought, hey I could get a win here," DeSalvo said. "But going in the game I wasn't trying to do too much, I wasn't trying to go and strike anybody out, get a win off the bat. I just wanted to go and get out of the first inning. And when I got out of the first inning, I just wanted to get out of the second inning. It was a step-by-step thing."

Mattingly called on Farnsworth to protect a 2-1 lead and the righthander recorded the first two outs. But he gave up an infield single to Jose Vidro, allowed the tying run to move into scoring position when pinch runner Willie Bloomquist stole second.

Replays showed that Bloomquist might have been out but the Yankees did not argue. On the next pitch, Johjima blooped a broken-bat single into right field and Bloomquist beat right fielder Bobby Abreu's throw.

"Replays showed that he tagged me," Bloomquist said. "I've been on the other end. Based on looking it over, we got a break."

"You guys saw the replay, I don't even have to talk about it," Posada said. "There's nothing to talk about."

Afterward, crew chief and second base umpire Gerry Davis admitted his view of the play was blocked.

"The throw was on the first base side and pulled Robinson (Cano) toward me a little bit," Davis said. "Normally when the runner is tagged on his backside, his hands are on the bag. The runner's hands were blocked from me."

George Sherill (1-0) worked around a one-out walk to Hideki Matsui for the win and closer J.J. Putz allowed a one-out single to Johnny Damon and uncorked a wild pitch with two outs that put Derek Jeter in scoring position.

But Putz recovered and struck out Abreu for his seventh save in as many opportunities.

Abreu, who drove in New York's first run with a first-inning fielder's choice, had a rough night with runners on base. He grounded out with the bases loaded to end the fifth and grounded into a fielder's choice in the eighth that forced Doug Mientkiewicz at home plate.

"I guess that kept us in the game," Seattle starter Miguel Batista said. "Before that they had some great at-bats. Jeter fouled off nine pitches in one at-bat. We played so much better today than we had in the last two days."

The Yankees went ahead, 2-1, in the fifth on doubles by Posada and Mientkiewicz off Batista, who allowed two runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out two.

"It was a big win for us," Hargrove said. "Anytime that you can come into this town, this ballpark against the Yankees and get a split, you feel pretty good about that."