Russell Branyan, Mariners fight off the Red Sox

BOSTON — A fifth-inning fly ball to left field by Russell Branyan would have trouble cracking the top 50 power-wise of the balls he has hit in the air this season.

But as Branyan fouled off pitch after two-strike-pitch with two on and one out, it became clear the Mariners' fortunes this Saturday afternoon depended on his staying alive for one more offering. Long before the Mariners finally pulled out a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox, it was Branyan's tying sacrifice fly to left on the 11th pitch of the plate appearance by Red Sox starter Brad Penny that ultimately swayed the day's events.

Without that epic battle, Penny likely had a shot at going seven innings and the Mariners would never have seen Boston reliever Takashi Saito in a walk-strewn ninth that handed Seattle a second straight win here.

"He made some tough pitches on me and I was able to get a piece of them to be able to survive until the next pitch," Branyan said. "I had a runner on third with less than two out, and my focus was on getting that guy in."

The Mariners have squandered such opportunities all season and Branyan quickly fell behind 0-2 to Penny. But he took the count full, fouled off four pitches, then finally delivered a huge run in a game where scoring was at a premium.

And that enabled the Mariners to stun a Fourth of July crowd of 37,656 at Fenway Park in an eventual bullpen battle that had them decisively outgunned. The Mariners entered the day with several relievers unavailable, but got 6-1/3 strong innings out of Garrett Olson — who yielded just a two-run homer to Jason Varitek in the second inning — then a badly-needed 1-2/3 hitless frames from struggling reliever Roy Corcoran to give themselves a shot in the ninth.

The Mariners, 5-3 on this nine-game trip, displayed good focus at the plate, drawing five walks and forcing the Red Sox to make pitches. That approach, typified by the Branyan at-bat, delivered in the ninth as a wild-looking Saito walked Ken Griffey Jr., then Ryan Langerhans and Kenji Johjima to load the bases with one out.

"Griffey's done that all year, where he sets the tone," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "For a guy of his stature to go up there and draw that walk, I think it gave us some momentum, gave us a little bit of life right there."

Seattle then caught a break as Chris Woodward — a career .170 hitter with the bases loaded — blooped a pop-fly single into shallow right field.

Woodward had saved the day in the sixth when Olson snared a comebacker from Jacoby Ellsbury with runners at the corners and none out. Olson threw high to third in a bid to catch lead runner Rocco Baldelli in a rundown. Woodward made a leaping grab and eventually tagged the runner out.

The inning ended with a 5-4-3 double play.

David Aardsma closed out a perfect ninth after getting treatment earlier in the day for a muscle knot near the back of his rib cage.

Before Aardsma came on, the seldom-used Corcoran turned in his best outing of the season. He got two groundouts to escape the seventh after taking over from Olson with a runner on, then pitched a perfect eighth, retiring pinch-hitter David Ortiz on a soft line out.

"I hadn't felt this good all year," Corcoran said. "I'll tell you, I had my back against the wall for a while, kind of beating myself up."

But it all might not have mattered had Branyan, who'd doubled in Ichiro in the third to start a Mariners comeback from 2-0 down, failed to deliver the tying run after making Penny work so hard.

Had Penny gone seven innings instead of six and left with a lead, the Mariners would have faced Hideki Okajima in the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth.

But instead, after being dominated by Justin Masterson and Okajima in the seventh and eighth respectively, it was Saito they got in the ninth.

Branyan had been known as an "all-or-nothing" free swinger so typical of the Mariners' style. But now, as he winds through his first season as a full-time player, he feels his game is changing.

"Those are the things I'm capable of doing," he said. "I'm capable of putting a quality at-bat together every time I go up to a plate. It doesn't always have to be a swing, or a guy gets me with two strikes and I'm an easy putaway. I think I'm a guy who can fight off tough pitches."

Just one more surprise for a Mariners team that keeps providing them daily.

Notes

• Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame announcer Dave Niehaus was taken by ambulance to a Boston hospital Saturday morning after waking up feeling disoriented.

Niehaus, 74, was conscious at the time and evidently was OK as he was able to announce Saturday's game at Fenway Park.

• Ken Griffey Jr. is 4 for 52 with no RBI and only one extra-base hit in games at Boston since leaving the Mariners in 1999.

• High Desert's James McOwen singled in the first inning Saturday night against Visalia to extend his California League-record hitting streak to 41 games.

The streak nearly came to an end in a 6-4 loss at Rancho Cucamonga on Friday night.

McOwen, an outfielder drafted in the sixth round in 2007, had gone 0 for 2 with a walk for the Mariners' Class A affiliate before grounding a single to center field with two outs in the ninth inning.

McOwen has a long way to go to reach the minor-league mark. Wichita's Joe Wilhoit hit in 69 straight in 1919.

The Associated Press contributed.

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