Jose Lopez delivers in 9th to put Mariners over A's, 8-7

Jose Lopez actually had no real desire to be a drama king on this night.

"I want to win the game quick," he said later.

But when he couldn't, when it instead took him 14 pitches to hit a single to score Endy Chavez with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to nail down the victory, he gave the Mariners one of the most memorable and nail-biting wins of this or any season, an 8-7 conquest of the Oakland A's in front of 25,760 at Safeco Field.

And when he did, he also gave that much more evidence that maybe something special is beginning to happen with this season as the Mariners (14-9) moved 3 ½ games ahead of the pack in the AL West.

"That was just a great team win," said rookie reliever Shawn Kelley, who got his first major-league win with 1-2/3 innings of scoreless relief that included consecutive strikeouts on called pitches -- each fastballs -- on Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday in the ninth inning.

"Great ballgame," said M's manager Don Wakamatsu.

In fact, it was Seattle's biggest comeback of the young season. The Mariners trailed 6-1 in the third inning after the A's blasted an ineffective Carlos Silva, whose implosion proved to be a subplot by the time the 2-hour, 59-minute game had ended.

Seattle scored six in a row to take a 7-6 lead before Holliday hit a mammoth homer into the second deck of the left-center bleachers to tie the score in the seventh.

It remained tied in the bottom of the ninth when Chavez singled with one out and Mike Sweeney walked. After Adrian Beltre flied to right, Russell Branyan -- who had earlier homered and as a left-hander posed a more pertinent threat to A's right-hander Russ Springer -- was intentionally walked, bringing on Lopez.

"He works so hard, I felt pretty good in that situation," said Wakamatsu.

Lopez watched two balls, then he watched two strikes, both of which seemed borderline.

Then began as titanic a struggle as can be seen on the first of May as Springer kept throwing strikes and Lopez kept fouling them off.

"I just don't want to take a pitch for a strike," Lopez said.

He fouled off the first one down the third-base line.

Then he fouled off four in a row into the stands behind him.

Then another down the third-base line.

Then another down the left-field line.

Then another into the screen behind home plate.

Then another into the third deck down the right-field line.

"I don't know what's going on with my bat," Lopez said, insisting he was hoping to hit each one somewhere fair. "A lot of fouls with my bat."

Then, finally, he found a cut fastball he could handle and lined it to right-center, scoring Chavez and sending a heretofore tense Mariners dugout into a happy frenzy.

"It felt pretty good when a guy gets to see that many pitches and to just battle and go to right-center and stay with that pitch is outstanding," said Wakamatsu. "That's a heck of a way to win that ballgame."

Said A's manager Bob Geren: "Springer was going to keep throwing strikes. It was a battle we lost, but I like the way he battled."

Lopez, known during his four years with the Mariners as a guy who usually shows as much patience as a 5-year-old on Christmas Day, said he'd never had an at-bat that long in his career. But as the battle wore on, he said he began to feel a little better.

"I take like five to six pitches and I feel relaxed," he said. "He threw everything. I say this is my time. I got my chance to win the game."

No one could be happier that he did than Silva, who gave up six runs in 3-2/3 innings and saw his earned-run average balloon to 7.36 but was long forgotten by the time it ended.

And there were other key moments -- Lopez, for instance, had a two-run single in the third to keep the M's in it after Oakland's initial outburst; and Branyan and then Franklin Gutierrez hit two-run homers in the fifth to put Seattle back ahead before Holliday tied it.

"Those are all momentum changers," Wakamatsu said. "They felt us coming."

Until, finally, Lopez sent everyone home.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com