Everett sets it right in 11th for M's

Carl Everett said he hit the ball "as clean as I can hit it" — and with his 11th-inning blast into the right-field bleachers, the Mariners were instantly cleansed of one of their more devastating moments of the season.

Everett's two-out home run to right field off Minnesota reliever Jesse Crain gave Seattle a 10-9 victory and ended a three-hour, 56-minute marathon in which the Mariners hit the first and last pitches they saw for home runs. It was their sixth win in seven games.

"Wins like that add to what we're trying to build," said Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, who said his "mind was blank and his heart was in his throat" when Everett connected on Crain's 2-0 pitch.

Hargrove didn't divulge his reaction in the eighth when the Twins' Michael Cuddyer hit a game-tying grand slam one pitch after Seattle reliever Rafael Soriano thought he had him struck out to end the inning.

"It looked good, but the umpire [Bruce Dreckman] had a lot better view," Hargrove said. "It would have been nice if it was strike three, but he called it a ball."

That, however, would be the last run for the Twins, with Seattle reliever J.J. Putz stranding a runner on second with one out in the ninth and Julio Mateo getting a huge 3-6-1 double play to end the 11th.

"I give credit to our pitchers for not just giving up after the grand slam," Everett said. "To me, this victory goes to them. They could have fallen to pieces, but they held it together."

Mariners update


Today: Minnesota

at Seattle, 1:35 p.m.,

KOMO (1000 AM)

Starting pitchers:

M's Joel Pineiro (5-5)

vs. Johan Santana (5-4)

After squandering a two-on, one-out opportunity in the 10th, the Mariners got two quick outs in the 11th before Everett hit his second game-ending homer of the season at Safeco Field. He previously beat Texas on April 19.

"I think this one is better because I hadn't been swinging the bat well," he said. "I didn't think I'd really get a pitch, but I said if I did, I was going to let it fly."

Soriano was so sure he had Cuddyer struck out in the eighth inning he started to walk off the mound. But with catcher Kenji Johjima setting up outside the plate, Dreckman saw it differently, ruling that the 0-2 curve had missed the outside corner. Soriano's next pitch, a slider, was crushed by Cuddyer for a game-tying grand slam.

"We played hard all night, but I give credit to the Twins," Hargrove said. "A lot of clubs would have checked it in, but they didn't, which is very typical of Ron Gardenhire teams."

The Mariners ripped five home runs, including a seeming game-breaking three-run shot by Raul Ibanez in the sixth inning that gave them a 9-4 lead. Yuniesky Betancourt and Ichiro each had four hits, with Ichiro reaching 2,501 hits in his career combined between Japan and the major leagues.

Jamie Moyer gutted out a shaky outing and was in line for his 209th career win until the Twins' eighth-inning rally. He gave up four runs and 10 hits in five innings, and said the difference from his two-hit shutout last time out against Kansas City was simple.

"Mechanics," he said. "In the fourth inning, I felt I started to get a handle on things. But the most important thing is we won. We're moving in the right direction."

The tone of the game — discordant — was set in the first inning when the Twins loaded the bases with no outs on a walk, a double by Lew Ford on a line drive to left field poorly played by Ibanez, and an Adrian Beltre error.

But Moyer was able to minimize the damage. The Twins got two runs out of that promising start, none in the second after back-to-back singles to start the inning, and just one in the third when they opened with two doubles and a walk.

The Mariners came out roping the ball as well, with Ichiro hitting the first pitch by Twins starter Boof Bonser over the right-field wall for his second homer of the year — the 18th leadoff blast of his career and the fourth on the first pitch.

Ichiro has 93 hits through Seattle's first 61 games — a pace for 247 hits. That would rank ninth on the all-time list, which is topped by Ichiro's 262 two years ago. He has 1,223 hits since joining Seattle in 2001 to go along with 1,278 in nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com