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Griffey visits Safeco seats

Russ Davis drives home winning run in 10th

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Posted: Monday July 19, 1999 02:52 PM

Ken Griffey Jr. was the fourth player to homer at Safeco Field. AP

SEATTLE (AP) - Ken Griffey Jr. hit his first home run at Safeco Field and Russ Davis hit a game-winning single in the 10th inning as the Seattle Mariners beat Arizona 8-7 on Sunday.

In the 10th, Byung-Hyung Kim (0-2) walked Jay Buhner and pinch-runner John Mabry stole second. After Raul Ibanez flied out, Davis singled to left to score Mabry from second.

Jose Mesa (1-4), Seattle's closer, who blew Thursday night's Safeco opener with a four-walk ninth, pitched two scoreless innings to get the victory.

Seattle came back to win its second in a row after a season-high seven straight losses. The Diamondbacks played in their 18th extra-inning game of the season.

The Mariners played in front of former teammate Randy Johnson, now with Arizona. Johnson, a star pitcher for the Mariners during the 1990s, will pitch here Tuesday night.

Safeco's $67 million retractable roof was wide open on a 64-degree day, fulfilling the Seattle owners' promises of green grass and blue skies.

Griffey, second in the American League in homers behind Tampa Bay's disabled Jose Canseco, hit his 30th off Omar Daal, a 407-foot shot to center, in the fourth inning to cut Seattle's deficit to 6-1. It came in his fourth game and 13th at-bat at Safeco.

Griffey, who hit 56 homers last season, trails Canseco by one homer. He was the fourth player to homer at Safeco. Teammates Russ Davis, Alex Rodriguez and Ibanez homered Saturday when the roof was closed.

In the seventh, Griffey scored his third run of the game after receiving a leadoff walk by Bobby Chouinard. He stole second, went to third on catcher Kelly Stinnett's throwing error and came home on Edgar Martinez's sacrifice fly to tie it at 7. The run was unearned.

Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the second on Travis Lee's RBI double and broke the game open against rookie John Halama with five runs in the third. Luis Gonzalez singled in two runs followed by RBI singles by Matt Williams, Bernard Gilkey and Lee.

In the fifth, Hanley Frias singled in a run to put the Diamondbacks ahead 7-1.

The Mariners came back to score five runs and chase Daal in the sixth. Martinez singled in a run, David Segui had a sacrifice fly, Davis and Dan Wilson added RBI singles and David Bell had a sacrifice fly.

Daal gave up six runs, eight hits and two walks in 5 1-3 innings. Halama, who led all rookie pitchers with a 2.89 ERA coming into the game, lasted only 2 1-3 innings, the shortest start of his career.

Notes: Griffey's homer was the 380th of his career. He's in 38th place on the career list, moving out of a tie with Orlando Cepeda and Tony Perez. Next up for Griffey are Jim Rice and Frank Howard, who are tied for 36th with 382. Griffey hit 198 of his homers in his 101/2 seasons in the Kingdome. ... Williams' RBI in the third was his 85th of the season, tying Devon White's club record. ... Halama's ERA went to 3.40. ... It was the first extra-inning game at Safeco.

 

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