M's steal one in N.Y.

NEW YORK — There was plenty of hooting, hollering and happy high-fives in the dugout tunnel and clubhouse once the Mariners completed this late-game turnaround.

Don't think that major-leaguers like the Mariners are immune to the excitement that comes with beating New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera on a ninth-inning home run. There were ample folks for the Mariners to thank after a 3-2 victory on Monday night, a game in which they trailed by a run with four outs to go and only three weakly hit singles to show for themselves.

They could thank Adrian Beltre, who responded to a demotion to the No. 7 spot in the order by connecting for a 410-foot homer to center off Rivera in the ninth. There was second-base umpire Gerry Davis, who admitted he erred in calling Willie Bloomquist safe on a two-out steal attempt in the eighth. That put Bloomquist in position to score the tying run on Kenji Johjima's single to right.

"The throw was to the first-base side and pulled Robinson toward me a little bit, so I couldn't see the runner's hands. Normally when the runner is tagged on his backside, his hands are at the bag. That obviously wasn't the case tonight," Davis said.

But before all that happened, there was starting pitcher Miguel Batista, whose iron nerves in a trying fifth inning were the only reason Seattle had a prayer of splitting this four-game series.

"We played so much better tonight than we had the last two days," Batista said after allowing two runs over 6-1/3 hard-fought innings in a game that saw reliever George Sherrill collect the win. "That's what is really going to help us, to keep on playing good ball. ... They might not hit good sometimes, or pitch good at other times, but the Yankees play good baseball."

And the Mariners simply have not. Forget the team's 14-13 record for a moment and consider where things have been heading.

Consider an 11-3 record against the Royals, Rangers, White Sox and A's, teams either decimated by injury or not very good. Or how the Mariners entered the night 2-10 against teams with winning records or labeled as contenders. You start to get an idea why they held a closed-door meeting before Monday night's series finale in front of 47,424 fans at Yankee Stadium.

The Mariners had only the three cheap hits through seven innings on Monday off another Class AAA mainstay, Matt DeSalvo, the major-league-record 10th starter used by the Yankees through their first 30 games.

So, all is not solved. But the Mariners hope it's a start.

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, who did most of the talking in the pregame meeting, knew things were bleak despite a .500 record. It's why he shuffled the batting order, bumping Beltre down to No. 7, moving Jose Vidro to the No. 2 spot and shifting Kenji Johjima from seventh to third.

"If you noticed, we didn't play that well [on Sunday]," Batista said. "Mentally, we weren't there. We're trying to get back as a team and get back to a good rhythm. We talked about a lot of stuff, but that was one of them. We have to get that going."

Batista was mentally tough in the fifth when the Yankees, having regained a 2-1 lead on a Doug Mientkiewicz double, fouled off numerous pitches before loading the bases on two-out walks to Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter.

The very dangerous Bobby Abreu then worked the count to 3-1 before Batista threw a devastating, four-seam fastball clocked at 94 mph. Abreu swung and missed, then bounced out meekly to the right side on an ensuing 92 mph fastball.

"That was a very important at-bat," Batista said. "After what they had done, fouling off all those pitches, you have to stay focused."

The Mariners didn't waste the opportunity Batista left for them. After Yankees reliever Kyle Farnsworth got two quick outs in the eighth, Vidro had a broken-bat, infield single.

Bloomquist then replaced Vidro as a pinch-runner, broke for second on a steal attempt and was tagged out a good three feet from the bag on the play Davis missed.

"It's a good thing there's no instant replay in baseball," Bloomquist said.

The Mariners took further advantage in the ninth when Rivera left a first-pitch cutter up in the zone to Beltre and yielded his first run to Seattle since the 2003 season.

"It's my first hit [off him]," said Beltre, who had struck out in his only previous career at-bat. "I was trying to hit the ball hard somewhere in the gap. I know what kind of pitcher Rivera is. You don't want to start taking pitches."

Hargrove insists he hasn't given up on Beltre. He may even switch the order around again tonight in Detroit.

"I don't know if I will or not," Hargrove said. "I really don't. I was thinking about that during the game and I think it's real ironic that Johjima and Beltre were the hitting heroes tonight."

Ironic or not, until the well-played games start coming more routinely, as Batista talked about, nothing is carved in stone.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.