M's late rally helps erase rough start for Hernandez

Never had lending a hand in a victory seemed so unlikely to Jose Vidro as when he looked on from the bench in the eighth inning Monday night.

The Mariners were four outs from losing to the Baltimore Orioles, they had no one on base, and Vidro's left index finger was so swollen from a bone bruise that trainers had already shut him down for the night.

Seattle had come from behind only once in 24 previous efforts when trailing after seven innings, so a pair of two-out singles that inning registered as somewhat of a surprise.

Even more shocking was when Vidro heard his name called to pinch hit, forcing him to beg the umpire for more time to get loose. He wound up chopping a tying single, one that ignited a four-run rally that led to a 7-4 win and sent Safeco Field into a frenzy.

"I think all the pain goes away in a situation like that," a smiling Vidro quipped in a giddy clubhouse.

Indeed, this stirring comeback, in front of 19,090 fans, spared the Mariners plenty of pain. They avoided falling 6 ½ games back of the American League West-leading Los Angeles Angels and losing on yet another night when Felix Hernandez brought less-than-ace material to the mound.

The Mariners, who improved to a season-high four games over .500, also won't have to look back with regret on a series of squandered opportunities against shaky-looking Orioles starter Erik Bedard. Seattle trailed 4-1 in the second inning as the Orioles, led by three doubles off the bat of Brian Roberts, jumped all over Hernandez.

But it was the bat of Ichiro, relegated to rare designated-hitter duty to give both him and Vidro a night off of sorts, that ultimately decided the game. He had already drilled Bedard's first pitch of the game over the wall in right-center to get Seattle on the board in the first inning.

Then after Vidro tied it off lefty reliever John Parrish in the eighth, Ichiro swatted a pitch down the left-field line for a run-scoring double that put Seattle ahead to stay. The Mariners scored a pair of add-on runs on an ensuing double by Jose Lopez, then watched J.J. Putz close out the ninth for his 14th save in as many tries.

"The way our team has been playing lately," Ichiro said through an interpreter, "even with two outs in that situation, it made me think there was still a possibility."

The Mariners seemed headed nowhere fast in the eighth as submarine-armed reliever Chad Bradford notched a pair of quick outs.

But Yuniesky Betancourt, riding a 16-game hitting streak, and Willie Bloomquist delivered two-out singles to put runners at the corners. Mariners manager Mike Hargrove was about to send Ben Broussard up to hit in place of Jason Ellison.

That changed once the Baltimore bench signaled for Parrish to enter the game.

"Hargrove asked me right there and I said, 'Oh yeah, I'm ready to go!' " Vidro said.

This wasn't exactly Kirk Gibson hobbling off the bench on an aching knee to deliver the winning home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Vidro's chopper barely made it past the sprawling infielders to the grass in shallow center.

But the plate patience shown by Vidro, who worked the count to 3-1 against Parrish, helped compensate for the lack of power in his achy finger.

"Instead of battling 2-2, or 0-2, I got a pitch I could hit," Vidro said. "I didn't hit it good, but I hit it in a great spot."

That helped make up for all the spots Hernandez failed to hit early in the game. The Orioles jumped all over his fastball, forcing Hernandez to throw more breaking pitches.

When he missed up in the zone, the balls got hit. Of the season-high 11 hits allowed by Hernandez in 5-2/3 innings, five were doubles. With the right-hander coming off a subpar performance against the Angels, in which he allowed three home runs, there were plenty of questions about whether Hernandez is over his elbow injury.

"I'm struggling a little bit now," he said. "I think my command has to come back. I don't know when, but it has to come back."

Hargrove agreed that his pitcher "had nothing tonight and he really, really battled and kept us close."

But Hernandez still seemed headed for a loss as the Mariners failed to score in the fourth inning after getting the first two men on. They'd already left two on with none out in the second inning after opening that frame with three singles and a run.

Hargrove, Vidro, Ichiro and others watching from the dugout as the zeroes piled up kept hoping the Mariners could stay patient and put one more rally together.

"We obviously hit the ball well in the eighth inning," Hargrove said. "But we were smart hitters."

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

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