Plenty of flubs, but M's still win

SAN DIEGO -- So much went wrong for the Mariners on Saturday in a 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres that it almost obscured what ultimately went right.

Almost, but not quite. In the end, the exhilaration of their stirring late rally, and the encouragement they took from Jeff Weaver's return engagement, trumped the mental errors that clearly frustrated manager Mike Hargrove.

"Mentally, we made mistakes that cost us runs probably three different times," Hargrove said. "You can't play against a team like the Padres and do that very often. We fought through that and made up for it, but tonight was not one of our better nights."

It still left a lot of smiles in the Mariners' clubhouse, however.

One belonged to Jose Lopez, who knocked in the winning run in the ninth inning on a single to center field that brought home pinch-runner Willie Bloomquist from second.

"I had big concentration in that situation," Lopez said.

The Mariners trailed 5-1 after six innings, but came back to tie the score in the eighth on a home run by Richie Sexson.

Another grin was on the shaving-cream-smeared face of Sean Green, who endured the traditional hazing routine after earning his first major-league victory.

"I've been looking forward to that for a long time," said Green, who struck out Khalil Greene with runners on the corners to end a Padres threat in the eighth.

The cream pie was delivered by J.J. Putz, who wrapped up the game with his 17th save in as many opportunities. The Mariners, with their 13th win in the past 18 games, moved six games over .500 for the first time all season.

"If you can't see we're on a roll, you're kind of weird," Putz said. "It was awesome to see Weaver come out and pitch well."

No one was feeling more buoyant after the game than Weaver, even though he had to come out after four innings because of a stiff lower back. He tweaked the back running out a grounder in the third inning, but said he fully expects to make his next start Thursday at Wrigley Field.

And, yes, Weaver earned another trip to the mound. He hardly resembled the pitcher that struggled to an 0-6 record and 14.32 earned-run average in six previous starts before a month-long stint on the disabled list.

After a rocky first inning, in which a fielding miscue by right-fielder Jose Guillen cost him a likely double play, Weaver retired the final 11 batters he faced. In four innings, Weaver gave up two hits, two runs (just one earned), didn't walk any and struck out three.

"Everything worked tonight," he said. "I had all my pitches, and there was life on my pitches, too. I was finally getting some bad swings in hitters' counts, where before, there was no tricking them."

Weaver called the game "baby steps," and added, "The relief will come when I start winning ballgames. It takes more than one start, but I plan on being consistent throughout the remainder of the season."

Hargrove called Weaver's effort "outstanding" and said he could probably have continued in the fifth despite the stiff back but didn't want to risk further injury.

The most glaring of the mistakes to which Hargrove referred -- in addition to errors by Guillen and Adrian Beltre -- was a base-running gaffe by Kenji Johjima in the seventh.

Johjima came in standing up from third and was tagged out when San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez surprisingly came home on a ground ball by Yuniesky Betancourt. A slide would likely have allowed him to beat the throw.

"I talked to Jo, and we came to an understanding about that," Hargrove said.

One apparent issue for Johjima on the play was that Betancourt's bat was in front of the plate. Earlier in the game, Betancourt had singled sharply to center to extend his hitting streak to 20 games, tying Alex Rodriguez's 1996 record for a Seattle shortstop.

Pinch-hitter Ben Broussard started the Mariners' ninth with a single off Doug Brocail, and Bloomquist moved up on Ichiro's sacrifice. Lopez then grounded a base hit up the middle to break the 5-all tie.

Padres starter David Wells, using a Moyer-esque array of slop, handcuffed the Mariners for six innings in search of his 234th career victory, but faltered in the seventh.

The Mariners tied it in the eighth when Sexson, stepping up to the plate with a .194 average after three hitless at-bats, launched a 1-2 pitch from Scott Linebrink into the stands in left for his ninth homer.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com