Thursday, September 12, 2002
Rangers 4, Mariners 3
ARLINGTON, Texas — Long after the game, Bret Boone sat at his locker mumbling to himself. How could he make such a dumb mistake when so much is on the line for the Seattle Mariners?
Boone's baserunning blunder cost the Mariners a chance to score despite two doubles in the ninth. And Seattle's playoff hopes took another blow when Todd Greene led off the bottom of the inning to give the Texas Rangers a 4-3 win Wednesday night.
The Mariners try on Thursday to avoid a four-game sweep at last-place Texas. They are six games behind Anaheim in the AL wild-card race with 17 games to play — all against AL West opponents.
“It's getting down to the nitty gritty, and we can't do this,” Boone said. “There's no die in this team, but this is not good at this stage.”
Boone led off the ninth with a double, then got only to third on Carlos Guillen's hit off the outfield wall. Boone was fooled by left fielder Todd Hollandsworth, who held up his glove as if he had a play.
“It's a highly effective play,” Hollandsworth said. “I knew I couldn't get myself under it. So I could either make an attempt to make a catch running into the wall, or go back hard and act like I was going to catch it.”
Instead of going halfway, Boone broke back to second to tag up, expecting to go to third after the catch.
“He made a great deke, but it doesn't matter,” Boone said. “I'm not going to say we lost because of that play, but that play was big and I know better than that. I don't know if I've ever done that on such a textbook play.”
Boone was then thrown out coming home on a suicide squeeze bunt when Jose Offerman struck out against Francisco Cordero (2-0).
Greene pinch-hit in the eighth for catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who bruised his right leg blocking a wild pitch. Greene was left at the plate when pinch-runner Donnie Sadler was caught stealing for the third out.
In the ninth, Greene hit a 2-2 pitch from Arthur Rhodes (8-4) down the left-field line for his seventh homer.
Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 54th homer and rookie Hank Blalock also homered for the Rangers, whose major league record of 27 straight games with a homer had ended in a 3-2 win on Tuesday night.
The Rangers led 3-0 after Rodriguez's 413-foot homer to center in the sixth off Freddy Garcia, who matched a career-high with 12 strikeouts in seven innings.
Garcia got the first seven outs on strikeouts, even while falling behind 2-0 on Rafael Palmeiro's RBI single and Blalock's homer.
Rookie Colby Lewis, the Rangers' first pick in the June 1999 draft, pitched into eighth in his first start and left with a 3-1 lead after walking Mike Cameron to start the eighth.
Lewis held the Mariners scoreless until Ruben Sierra's solo homer with two outs in the seventh. But reliever Danny Kolb gave up an RBI double to Ichiro Suzuki and the game-tying RBI single to Edgar Martinez after he left.
The moment of silence in remembrance of the victims of the terrorist attacks a year earlier was delayed because of an argument.
At 9:11 p.m., when the game was supposed to stop, Hollandsworth hit a grounder to Boone at second. Carl Everett, running from first, slid well short of the bag to try to avoid Boone's tag.
Everett argued when he was ruled out by umpire Larry Young and Rangers manager Jerry Narron also came out on the field. Seattle manager Lou Piniella then argued that Hollandsworth should have been out because of Everett's interference.
Notes: Ivan Rodriguez's 13-game hitting streak ended when he went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. ... Greene also had the game-winning RBI on Tuesday night, on an eighth-inning groundout against Rhodes. ... Garcia, who also had 12 strikeouts against Detroit on Aug. 24, 1999, is 4-5 with a 5.95 ERA in his 12 starts since pitching in the All-Star game.
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Rangers 4, Mariners 3 
