Hunter’s Hr Lifts M’S In 12th

The Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox played a game of lastswing-wins in the Kingdome Saturday night, and to the delight of 47,042, the last swing belonged to Brian Hunter.

Brought into the game as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, Hunter’s two-run home run in the 12th inning produced an 8-6 victory that required almost every Mariners available.

In the end, Seattle had two unused available bodies - reserve catcher John Marzano - and an exhausted manager who had pushed hard all night for a win he felt the team had to have.

“We have got to stay close to Texas until we get healthy,” Lou Piniella said.

They stayed within five games with this victory, and all they had to do was rally from deficits of 2-1, 4-2 and 6-4. And that was just in the first nine innings.

Rally they did, however, and in the 12th inning Paul Sorrento singled, pinch-runner Manny Martinez stole second - Seattle’s fourth stolen base of the night - and Piniella had pushed the winning run into scoring position for Hunter.

Hunter made it a moot point, hitting his first home run in 40 at-bats this season to make a winner of reliever Rafael Carmona (3-0).

Rookie Matt Wagner didn’t figure in the decision, and in the end his line was less than spectacular - six innings, four runs - but the 24-year-old right-hander continues to look solid in a rotation that has long sought that commodity.

Wagner’s bend-but-don’t-break approach was tested early, when he opened the game by allowing a single and a walk to bring up the heart of Chicago’s lineup. Tough spot? He struck out Frank Thomas, struck out Robin Ventura and finished the job by retiring Harold Baines on an easy ground ball.

In his third big-league game, Wagner pitched into and out of trouble much of the night, forcing the White Sox to leave the bases loaded in the third inning. But a pair of solo home runs, by Thomas and Dave Martinez, had Chicago ahead, 2-1, after five innings because Kevin Tapani was blowing through the Mariners lineup.

Edgar Martinez led off the sixth inning with a single, the second of his three hits, took third base on Paul Sorrento’s double and scored on a ground ball by Wilson.

Even again after six, Wagner tried to get deeper into the game. The first three men he faced in the seventh - Tony Phillips, Martinez and Thomas - strung together two singles and a two-run double, chasing Wagner and putting the Sox ahead again, 4-2.

So Wagner departed losing and wound up with no decision. But in three starts, he’s now pitched 17 innings and twice given the Mariners the chance to win his games.

Relievers Lee Guetterman and Mike Jackson retired Chicago after Wagner departed, and that two-run White Sox lead lasted until the third hitter of the Seattle seventh. Then Griffey Jr. followed an Alex Rodriguez single with his team-leading 23rd home run - a shot that was last seen sailing over the fence in left-center field.

One out into the eighth inning, Piniella went to closer Norm Charlton in a tie game. Charlton got out of that inning unscathed, but a wild ninth inning, fueled by walks to Thomas and Ventura, produced a rally that put Chicago ahead 6-4.

Needing three outs for the victory, manager Terry Bevington went to his stopper, Roberto Hernandez.

At that point, all Seattle needed was two runs to tie - and Hernandez had allowed exactly two runs in his last 37-1/3 innings in rolling up 20 consecutive saves.

The team that 10 days ago ended the consecutive saves streak of Cleveland’s Jose Mesa went to work again in the Kingdome.

Rodriguez doubled to open the ninth inning, his third hit, and Griffey singled off the wall in right field to cut the lead in half, 6-5. As that large crowd cheered, Griffey stayed at first as Hernandez retired Martinez, then Paul Sorrento.

Up came Wilson, and the man making a strong All-Star bid continued his campaign. His grounder earlier in the game had given him at least one RBI in each of his last six games, but this time Wilson doubled up the alley in left-center field.

Griffey, running at contact, scored easily to send a Mariners game into extra innings for just the third time this season. Wilson, who had a career-best 51 RBI last season in 119 games - had run his 58-game total this season to 48. Mariners 8, White Sox 6

Chicago AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Phillips lf 5 1 2 0 0 2 .317 Mouton lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .318 DaMartinez cf-rf 5 3 3 1 1 0 .346 FThomas 1b 5 2 3 3 1 1 .350 Ventura 3b 4 0 0 0 2 2 .276 Baines dh 4 0 1 1 1 0 .313 2-Martin pr-dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 .429 Tartabull rf 2 0 0 0 2 1 .223 DLewis cf 2 0 1 1 0 0 .264 Karkovice c 5 0 0 0 0 1 .225 b-Kreuter ph-c 1 0 0 0 0 0 .205 Durham 2b 6 0 2 0 0 1 .273 Guillen ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 .276 Totals 44 6 12 6 7 9 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 6 1 2 0 0 1 .258 ARodriguez ss 6 2 3 0 0 1 .360 Griffey Jr cf 6 2 2 3 0 1 .300 EMartinez dh 5 1 3 1 1 1 .355 Sorrento 1b 6 0 2 0 0 2 .314 3-MaMartinez pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 —- DWilson c 6 0 2 2 0 1 .313 Sojo 3b 2 0 0 0 1 0 .223 1-Sheets pr-3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .222 a-BRHntr ph-lf-rf 2 1 1 2 0 0 .400 Bragg rf-lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .276 Amaral lf-3b 5 0 1 0 0 1 .216 Totals 48 8 16 8 3 8 Chicago 001 010 202 000 - 6 12 2 Seattle 100 001 202 002 - 8 16 1 One out when winning run scored.

a-flied out for Sheets in the 9th. b-grounded out for Karkovice in the 12th.

1-ran for Sojo in the 8th. 2-ran for Baines in the 11th. 3-ran for Sorrento in the 12th.

E-Guillen (6), Tapani (1), Charlton (1). LOBChicago 11, Seattle 10. 2B-FThomas (15), Cora (13), ARodriguez (21), Sorrento (12), DWilson (13). HR-Griffey Jr (23) off Tapani; BRHunter (1) off McCaskill; DaMartinez (5) off Wagner; FThomas (20) off Wagner. RBIsDaMartinez (28), FThomas 3 (70), Baines (50), DLewis (24), Griffey Jr 3 (60), EMartinez (56), DWilson 2 (48), BRHunter 2 (8). SB-Griffey Jr (10), EMartinez (3), MaMartinez (1), Sheets (1). CS-Martin (1). S-Guillen, Sojo. SF-Baines. GIDPVentura, Cora, Amaral.

Runners left in scoring position-Chicago 7 (DaMartinez, Baines, Tartabull, Karkovice 4); Seattle 7 (Cora, Sorrento, DWilson 2, BRHunter, Amaral 2).

Runners moved up-Griffey Jr.

DP-Chicago 3 (Tapani and FThomas), (Durham, Guillen and FThomas), (Durham, Guillen and FThomas); Seattle 2 (Cora, ARodriguez and Sorrento), (ARodriguez and Sorrento).

Chicago IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Tapani 6-1/3 10 4 3 2 4 104 3.10 LThomas 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 4 3.12 Karchner 1-1/3 0 0 0 1 2 17 3.24 RHernandez 1 3 2 2 0 1 20 1.08 Simas 1-1/3 1 0 0 0 0 16 4.19 Sirotka 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.00 McCaskill L,4-3 2/3 2 2 2 0 1 17 6.64

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Wagner 6 9 4 4 4 3 112 6.88 Guetterman 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 8 6.35 MJackson 2/3 0 0 0 0 2 12 5.28 Charlton 1-2/3 2 2 2 2 1 41 3.06 Carmona W,3-0 3 1 0 0 1 3 36 4.04 Wagner pitched to 3 batters in the 7th.

Inherited runners-scored-LThomas 1-0, Karchner 1-0, Guetterman 1-0, MJackson 1-0.

IBBoff Tapani (Bragg) 1, off Carmona (Baines) 1. WP-Tapani.

T-4:06. A-47,042 (59,166).