Hope for season springs anew after wondrous win

On a Sunday afternoon that blazed with sunshine and hope, in front of a sellout — albeit heavily Red Sox-ed — crowd, Richie Sexson drove a Mike Timlin fastball deep over the left-center-field fence, landing the Mariners just this much closer in the American League West.

Days like this make you wonder what might be, or at least what might have been for this team. Games this emotional, this good, give life to a season that has staggered between intensive care and endless possibility.

Sunday was a game as good as baseball gets. A game warm with momentum shifts. A game the Mariners won, lost, won, almost lost, then finally won 9-8.

In the eighth inning, Adrian Beltre, taking advantage of vacationing Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, hit Safeco Field's first inside-the-park home run and gave the Mariners a one-run lead.

Then Boston's Jason Varitek tied the score in the ninth, with a two-out home run off a window in the Hit It Here Café.

Sexson struck the final blow.

It was a Mariners game that was every bit as crazy as their season.

In a division nobody is eager to win, the M's keep hanging around.

"It's been wacky," left fielder Raul Ibanez said.

They are four games under .500, but just four games out of first. Before beating Boston to win the rubber game of this weekend series, they had lost five series in a row, but they hadn't lost touch with the Oakland Athletics.

A week before the trade deadline, the Mariners are stuck in a baseball Twilight Zone: mired in last place, but in range of first. Forget trading off starters Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro; there is a division race, a very unorthodox division race, staggering through Seattle.

There are signs of life in the Mariners.

"It definitely is an up-and-down season," Jarrod Washburn, Sunday's starter, said. "There were talks of guys losing their jobs at one point in the year, and then we go on a long winning streak. So hopefully now we can have a lot more ups in the last two months than downs.

"It's anybody's ballgame right now. All four teams in our division are capable of getting hot and turning the season around in a hurry. Usually, it comes down to pitching and someone getting hot."

This late into the season most teams have a feel for who they are. Managers understand their teams' personalities. Good or bad, the die is cast. You're either a contender or not.

But 98 games into this season, the only thing consistent about the Mariners is their inconsistency. Their only certainty is their uncertainty.

In May, the Mariners' obituary had been prepared and was ready for editing. Manager Mike Hargrove always seemed one loss away from losing his job. General manager Bill Bavasi's future was unclear.

Then the players picked themselves up and got back in the race, winning 18 of 25 during a June stretch, before starting this month losing six of their first seven, all at home.

"It's been rough on all of us to not be able to put our finger on exactly what it is that causes those swings," said Ibanez, who quietly — because he does everything quietly — is having a remarkable season. "We've got to be more consistent. You know that's obvious.

"It's frustrating for us because we see what we're capable of. Then, all of a sudden, it's like we don't do it. I really don't know what to say."

The Mariners have been better on paper than they have been on the field.

Players who had to be good for them to be good — shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, second baseball Jose Lopez, catcher Kenji Johjima, starter Meche and closer J.J. Putz — have been better than expected.

Ichiro is hitting .344. Ibanez has 78 runs batted in. Sexson has 20 home runs and 66 RBI. Beltre's batting average is above .300 since June 6. And the bullpen, with surprises like Mark Lowe and George Sherrill, has been dependable.

Still, the Mariners are three games behind third-place Los Angeles.

"Because of the way the division has worked out this season, we feel like we should be in first place and that we could be in first place and that we will be in first place," said Ibanez, who had two doubles in Sunday's win. "But we've got to limit our bad spells, keep them to a minimum.

"We're trying to get into that postseason again, and I'm excited about our chances because we're so close right now. It's getting late in the season now and we've got a legitimate shot at it."

Such is the medicinal power of a Sunday walk-off home run in the sun at Safeco.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com