M's rally caps the O's

The fans leaping from their seats the final few innings weren't the only ones stirred by this latest Mariners comeback.

Ichiro also felt something. That would be the same Ichiro who said a short while ago Seattle's winning ways were masking the team's less-visible failures. But he wasn't talking like that after Tuesday night's contest, a 5-4 thriller in which the Mariners scored four runs in the seventh to topple the Baltimore Orioles bullpen once again.

For a second straight night, an Ichiro double put the Mariners ahead to stay and caused most of the 19,287 fans at Safeco Field to chant his name in triumph. And once the Mariners' bullpen closed it out, helping the team move to five games over .500 and within one of wild-card leader Detroit, the pending free agent finally admitted to feeling something different about this year.

"There is some kind of atmosphere that this team has," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "I'm not exactly able to put a finger on it. But we definitely have something going on."

What the Mariners have going on now is an ability to seriously weaken the spirit of an embattled Orioles bullpen. The Orioles saw a 4-1 lead evaporate in that seventh as relief pitcher Danys Baez walked the bases loaded to launch the third consecutive blown save by Baltimore's flammable relief corps.

Jose Vidro delivered a run on a sacrifice fly off new reliever Jamie Walker. A second run then scored on a wild pitch before Yuniesky Betancourt delivered a single to left field that tied the game.

Betancourt had already extended his hitting streak to a major-league-high 17 games with a single in the sixth. But his throwing error a half-inning earlier had allowed Baltimore an unearned run and made Betancourt's second single of the night all the more sweet for him.

"It was definitely a relief," Betancourt said through an interpreter. "Especially since the team was only down by a run at the end. It definitely made me feel better."

A relief in the standings somewhat as well, since the Mariners kept pace at 5 ½ games behind the Angels and a game up on third-place Oakland in an American League West that is quickly gaining respect around baseball.

The Orioles brought submarine-armed Chad Bradford into the contest after Betancourt's single tied it, 4-4. But Ichiro laced a ball down the left-field line, much as he did Monday night, to help the Mariners to their fifth win in the last six games.

With the bullpen Seattle has, that was the game right there. The Mariners are 28-0 when leading after seven and saw Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz retire six of the final seven Baltimore hitters.

Putz got some help from reserve third baseman Willie Bloomquist in notching his 15th save in as many tries. After a leadoff single in the ninth by Ramon Hernandez, Corey Patterson laid a bunt down on the third-base side that Bloomquist snapped up before a daring throw to second to nab the lead runner.

Putz fanned the final two batters and Seattle snatched another game out from under a Baltimore team that had led all game after scoring two in the first off Mariners starter Cha Seung Baek. Of the 31 runs allowed this season by Baek, 11 have come in the opening inning.

Baltimore made it 3-0 in the third inning while the Mariners continued to stand runners against Orioles starter Brian Burres, a southpaw from Oregon who allowed just an infield hit the first four innings.

But Burres also walked three batters and hit another. Seattle managed five walks in the game and the patient approach ran Burres's pitch count up to 111 and forced the Orioles to use their bullpen by the sixth inning.

"That's the one thing that we did well," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "We were a little patient. We didn't hit many balls hard off of him and the ones we did, they made plays on."

Seattle had stranded multiple runners in four different innings before the seventh.

There was a growing sense among the Mariners that something could happen if the opportunities kept piling up. But unlike the previous game, when the Mariners hit a lot of balls hard all night long, this seemed a case where they'd need help.

They got it in the seventh. Ichiro looked on with mounting optimism as Orioles reliever Baez struggled to throw strikes.

"Today was a situation where our opponent gave us a chance to win," said Ichiro. "So, when something like that happens, with the team that we have this year, I felt like, 'We can capture this.' "

Capturing Ichiro for years to come will require more than that from the Mariners. But perhaps, on another night of wild celebrations, this was a beginning.

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

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