M's gut out win, get back to .500

It goes without saying that Wladimir Balentien didn't really have to leap up into the stands, fighting off fans, popcorn and beer to make a game-ending catch of a foul ball.

After all, his Mariners had a 7-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks well-in hand Saturday night, with unhittable-looking closer David Aardsma on the mound. But Balentien had seen the goings on of the past 24 hours; Endy Chavez lying on a training table with a ruined knee, Ken Griffey Jr. getting 60 cubic centimeters of blood drained from a bad knee; Adrian Beltre begging into the lineup despite a shoulder he could barely lift, not to mention Russell Branyan staying in this contest after a 95 mph fastball rang off his forearm.

Throw in two burials of player family members this week and Jose Lopez tending to his dying sister in Venezuela, and going the extra mile for a foul ball probably seemed the least Balentien could do.

"We had 24 heartbroken guys seeing Endy Chavez impersonate Joe Theismann the other night," Mike Sweeney said after the Mariners, suddenly back to .500 and only 3 ½ games out of first place, scored five times in their final two turns at-bat. "It looked terrible. There were a lot of guys going to check on him in the training room today because they care. A lot of guys looking around and seeing what others on this team have been going through."

Sweeney delivered the tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the seventh inning to help left-handed starter Jason Vargas to a much-deserved victory. But Sweeney was only in the game because Griffey, the home-run hero of Friday's contest, had so much blood drained from a swollen knee that he was a late lineup scratch on his own T-shirt giveaway night.

Franklin Gutierrez also singled to drive in a run in the seventh while Yuniesky Betancourt delivered a two-run double in the eighth to put things away in front of 29,525 appreciative fans at Safeco Field. Vargas was dominant throughout. He gave up an unearned run in the first inning, then retired 17 in a row until Justin Upton tied it 2-2 with a solo homer in the seventh.

Balentien had his first two-hit game in over a month, including a solo homer in the fourth off Billy Buckner that vaulted Seattle into a 2-1 lead. The way Vargas was pitching, it seemed like that might hold up.

Unlike his previous outing in Colorado, Vargas had his preferred catcher, Rob Johnson, back from bereavement leave and hitters guessing at his improved changeup.

"It's huge for me to be able to throw my changeup for a strike like that," Vargas said. "It lets me get ahead of hitters and it's huge for allowing me to keep my pitch count down."

Balentien was named as Chavez's full-time replacement in left field — for now.

"I think it's a great opportunity for me right now to get a couple more at-bats every day," Balentien said. "I've been putting a lot of work on my batting practice and my defense, so I think it's a great opportunity to show everybody the work I've been putting in those areas."

He certainly showed he can climb walls in the ninth.

"That was a tough, tough play right there," he said. "You had the fans, a few people trying to catch the ball. So, I tried to get my glove in there and catch it before anybody could touch it."

The Mariners have rewritten the definition of "tough play" the past few days. Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said Beltre was playing despite having jammed his surgically-repaired left shoulder while diving back into second base on Friday.

He's day to day. In other words, business as usual.

"We're just fighting," Sweeney said. "We keep fighting and we stick together. We're playing for each other."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.