Alex Rios' homer with two outs in the ninth beats Mariners, 5-4

CHICAGO — There have been times in the past eight months when Mariners closer David Aardsma would leave his trademark fastball a little too high in the zone.

On some of those days, the hitters would flat-out miss it. Other times, they'd fail to get good wood on the 95 mph heaters, seeing their resulting fly balls wilt in the Safeco Field air, often landing in the glove of a gravity-defying Franklin Gutierrez.

And then, there are times like this 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, when one of those too-high fastballs will be launched into a damp, late-afternoon sky, setting off an impromptu celebration by fans who had been en route to their cars moments earlier.

"You never want to give it up, but it's just a matter of the job," Aardsma said after suffering his first blown save since Aug. 20. "It's a matter of baseball. Of life. Sometimes, you're not going to get them all."

Alex Rios did get all of the 1-1 pitch Aardsma left up in the strike zone, giving the Mariners their second defeat in a row on a walkoff home run, something that hadn't happened since 2002. The Rios moon shot over the wall in left-center had such certainty on it that Aardsma didn't even turn to watch the two-run blast leave the park.

But those remaining among the announced crowd of 20,776 fans at U.S. Cellular Field certainly did. Some fans were already in the parking lot when the ball went out, having abandoned the cause early when a two-run, ground-rule double to right by Casey Kotchman gave Seattle a 4-2 lead in the top of the frame.

That hit seemed certain to give Doug Fister the win after another eight strong innings in his bid to stay in the rotation once Cliff Lee returns. Aardsma had converted his last 16 save opportunities.

But a Paul Konerko solo homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth caused some departing fans to stop and hover near the exits. Aardsma later walked Carlos Quentin on a two-out, full-count pitch to bring Rios to the plate.

"That's the hitter that changes the inning," Aardsma said of Quentin. "I mean, who cares about Konerko? He hits a home run, he can hit it out of the stadium. I don't even care. It's a two-run ballgame. You've got to get another one. And with that walk, that's the out I've got to get."

Aardsma said he made only one really bad pitch during the walk. Otherwise, he said, he threw close pitches that Quentin didn't bite on.

But Konerko and Rios sure bit.

Aardsma enjoyed a below-average home-run rate on his fly balls last season and there was concern he might give up a few more this year if luck evened out. He should have blown a save in Texas two weeks ago, but was rescued when Gutierrez made a homer-saving catch.

"It happens," he said after Saturday's loss. "Some days, the ball goes right where you want it. Other days, it doesn't."

Fister watched the whole thing from the dugout.

"I love Aardsma, he's one of the best closers in the game," Fister said. "We've got the utmost faith in him."

Fister had kept the Mariners in it despite two hits off Chicago starter Freddy Garcia the first seven innings. One was a Gutierrez solo homer in the fourth inning, the other a run-scoring Jose Lopez double in the seventh.

The only runs off Fister came when Eric Byrnes climbed the left-field wall in the fifth and nearly caught what looked to be a certain three-run homer by Alexei Ramirez with two out. Instead, the ball deflected off his glove, bounced off the top of the wall and back on to the field for a two-run double that put Chicago up 2-1.

But Lopez's double tied it, then Kotchman notched his double off Bobby Jenks in the ninth. A fan interfered with the ball in the corner and pinch-runner Jack Wilson, who had been on first base, was awarded home plate and a huge tack-on run for Seattle.

Turns out, it didn't matter.

"With 16 straight saves going into today, you expect to win that ballgame," said Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, whose team lost Friday's series opener on an Andruw Jones homer off Mark Lowe in the ninth. "He got some pitches up in the zone but he's been awfully consistent for us, perfect this year. He ended up leaving some pitches up, and he got hurt."

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

For the record

Streak: L2

Home: 7-2

Road: 2-7

vs. AL West: 4-6

vs. L.A.: 0-0

vs. Oakland: 3-4

vs. Texas: 1-2

vs. AL East: 3-0

vs. AL Cent: 2-3

vs. NL: 0-0

vs. LHP: 3-2

vs. RHP: 6-7

Day: 1-5

Night: 8-4

One-run: 1-4

Extra inngs.: 0-2