Mariners come alive just in time for 3-2 win over Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This was the entertaining Milton Bradley who showed up just in time to give these Mariners a needed energy jolt the final few innings.

Bradley still got booed and taunted by the crowd both in left field and at the plate throughout the latter frames of a 3-2 comeback win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night. And Bradley gave it right back, faking a toss of a ball into the crowd, pumping his fist after drawing a critical walk and also doffing his batting helmet in a mock salute that would have made Kanye West proud.

But it also wasn't as mean-spirited as some of these Bradley-fan exchanges have been. It seemed more like lighthearted fun for him, a theatrical diversion from the intensity Bradley displayed on the field with two hits, a clinching run batted in, a double-play-busting slide and several running catches as his team halted a four-game losing streak.

"I've got to interact with people, I've got to do my thing," Bradley said after a three-run eighth by Seattle erased a 2-0 deficit. "I've got to play with my swag. That's when I'm good, when I'm at my best."

Bradley said he came in geared up for the challenge of facing reigning Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke, who shut the Mariners out for seven innings but needed 119 pitches to do it. That forced a torch-lighting Royals bullpen into the contest, and Bradley and company took advantage.

Bradley ultimately drew the decisive walk of the game, a bases-loaded free pass from reliever Bruce Chen in the eighth with the count full. The pitch from Chen was low and away, as was Bradley's fist as he pumped it ever so slightly, but enough to draw a fresh reaction from the crowd of 14,969 at Kauffman Stadium.

"You're supposed to get booed on the road," Bradley said. "That's like a badge of honor. If I've got a whole crowd of people swaying, moving with my every movement, following me all over, that's when I've got control out there.

"I feel like I'm invincible. There's nothing I can't do out there."

The Mariners certainly didn't look invincible for most of this contest. It seemed unlikely they'd ever see Mark Lowe protecting a lead in the eighth or David Aardsma closing the ninth for the first time since serving up two home runs in a disastrous ninth inning at Chicago last Saturday.

Greinke ran his personal shutout streak to 29 innings against Seattle. Greinke, who threw a one-hitter last August in Seattle, is 3-0 in nine career appearances with a 1.86 ERA against the Mariners.

The Royals did what initially looked to be just enough damage for 5-1/3 innings off an improved-looking Ian Snell. Snell battled in and out of trouble, overcoming a bases-loaded, none-out jam in a 29-pitch first inning, then allowing just a pair of run-scoring triples, by Mitch Maier and Alberto Callaspo, to keep his team close.

"It means a lot to me because I found myself," Snell said. "I've been doing a lot of soul-searching. I went through a lot in a week and kind of had some downtime to myself. I kept away from the team a little bit to rethink some things and look at myself and kind of re-strategize how my season's going to go."

After just failing to break through in the seventh on Greinke, the Mariners erupted in the eighth as Ichiro dropped a bunt single with one out on a 2-0 pitch from reliever Ryan Rupe.

Chone Figgins, in a 3-for-37 slump, then drew a four-pitch walk. Franklin Gutierrez singled to cut the Kansas City lead to 2-1, and then, just when they needed it, the Mariners caught a break.

With newly installed Robinson Tejeda pitching, Jose Lopez chopped what looked to be a double-play ball. But Tejeda stuck his glove out to catch the ball and wound up deflecting it past his infielders and into right field, turning it into a tying double.

After a walk by Ken Griffey Jr. loaded the bases, Bradley came to the plate against new reliever Chen looking like a hitter "in control" of the situation.

"I dream about that," Bradley said. "I want to be in that spot. And to be up there at the plate feeling good, having a rhythm, having your timing, having your swing, knowing that there's nothing that can beat you except yourself. That's a great feeling."

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu was feeling good for a change as well.

"Greinke was tough," Wakamatsu said. "But again, getting him out of there maybe an inning before he was ready, in a sense, because of pitch counts enables us to get to their bullpen. But the other thing is, offensively, when you can get Ichiro and Figgy on in the same inning, special things happen."

Special enough to make a pitcher deflect a double-play ball into the outfield.

"That's the break we've been searching for," Bradley said. "It's one of those things that usually happens to us, but it's what we've been looking for."

So was an energized Bradley. Say good night to the "bad guy," folks. He gave fans, and his team, their money's worth.

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

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners

For the record

Streak: W1

Home: 7-2

Road: 3-9

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: 3-5

vs. NL: 0-0

vs. LHP: 3-3

vs. RHP: 7-8

Day: 1-6

Night: 9-5

One-run: 2-5

Extra inngs.: 0-2