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Righting the ship Mariners beat Red Sox, reclaim best record in baseball
Updated: Thursday May 10, 2001 2:10 AM
BOSTON (AP) -- Chris Stynes' cheekbone was fractured by a fastball, two other batters were hit by pitches and Manny Ramirez was nearly nailed in the head. All that, and still Seattle manager Lou Piniella, Boston manager Jimy Williams and plate umpire Al Clark agreed that no one was hit on purpose Wednesday night. David Bell broke out of a slump with three hits and four RBIs and the Seattle Mariners used a five-run, two-out rally in the eighth inning to beat the Boston Red Sox 10-5. The Mariners reclaimed the best record in baseball at 24-9. Bell's two-run double came two batters after Bret Boone became the third hit batsman. Bell wasn't worried about being the fourth. "If you have that in the back of your mind when you're hitting, you're in trouble," he said. "I thought it was a little bit over-exaggerated. I don't think anybody was trying to hit anybody." Stynes sustained two fractures in his left cheek area when hit by Aaron Sele's fastball in the second. Stynes' vision was satisfactory, the team said, but it was not known how long he would be sidelined. "I was trying to run a two-seam fastball on the inner part of the plate," Sele said. "You just pray and hope he's OK."
Said Piniella: "I didn't realize it was that serious." Boston starter Frank Castillo hit John Olerud in the third, and Clark warned both teams. Rolando Arrojo (1-1) hit Boone in the eighth and Jose Paniagua threw a pitch over Ramirez's head in the ninth. Each time, either Piniella or Williams talked to Clark. Last week in Seattle, Pedro Martinez was warned by umpire Joe Brinkman for a curveball that hit Edgar Martinez, even though it appeared unintentional. "Maybe they're just picking on Pedro," Williams said. "In (Clark's) opinion, the intent (Wednesday) wasn't to throw at anybody." Williams agreed that the hit batsmen were unintentional, but Piniella believed Arrojo deserved to be ejected after the warnings. "That's about what the rule states," Piniella said. Clark said he didn't think any of the pitches that hit batters were intentional. "I'm not going to take away a pitcher's right to pitch inside," he said. Castillo said, "from last week to this week is totally different. You wonder what kind of direction the rules will take." The hit batsmen dominated talk about a game in which the Red Sox recovered from a 4-0 deficit to tie it at 5 on Trot Nixon's two-run homer in the eighth. Back-to-back homers by Ramirez, his 11th, and Troy O'Leary, his third, had cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth. Boston couldn't come back from the five-run eighth as Kazuhiro Sasaki came in for just one pitch, O'Leary's double-play grounder with the bases loaded in the ninth. Sasaki got his 15th save in 16 opportunities and Jeff Nelson (1-0) got the win. Bell began the game in a 1-for-18 slump and was 1-for-14 against Boston this season. But his third hit highlighted the winning rally. "Arrojo's stuff was good. It was just his location," Williams said. Stan Javier singled with one out before Edgar Martinez fouled out. Olerud broke the tie with a double, and Boone was hit by a pitch. Al Martin singled in Olerud and took second on the throw home. Then Bell, who entered the game with a .177 average, doubled in two more runs, and Paul Wilson's double made it 10-5. Bell also singled in a run in the two-run fourth that made the score 4-0 and doubled in another to make it 5-3 in the seventh. Boone hit a two-run single in the first, and Martin and Bell added RBI singles in the fourth. An RBI single by Ramirez made it 4-3 in the sixth before Bell doubled in a run in the seventh. Notes: Seattle stole four bases, three by Ichiro Suzuki. ... John Valentin made his first appearance for Boston since May 30 when he suffered a severe left knee injury. He was activated Wednesday and received a standing ovation when he replaced Mike Lansing at shortstop in the ninth. ... For the second straight night, a Seattle starter failed to improve to 6-0. Jamie Moyer fell to 5-1 in Tuesday's 12-4 loss to Boston, and Sele wasn't involved in Wednesday's decision. ... Suzuki has a 15-game hitting streak.
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