Randy Johnson was amazed by the new ballpark.
”This,” said Johnson, ”is a new and improved Wrigley Field.”
For sure, it was the new and improved Randy Johnson who, with help, pitched the Seattle Mariners to a 5-4 victory over the White Sox Wednesday night.
Once again, the Sox hit home runs-one each by Cory Snyder and Carlton Fisk. And once again, they made things interesting in the ninth.
But in the end, the Sox winning streak was over at five games, Johnson`s was alive at three, 12 Sox were strikeout victims, and Ramon Garcia (0-3)
still was without a major-league victory.
”My day will come,” Garcia said. Wednesday wasn`t it.
He fell behind in the first when Edgar Martinez opened the game with a double, took third on Harold Reynolds` bunt and scored on a flyball by Ken Griffey Jr.
Snyder, suddenly swinging better than he has since Florida, matched that run in the second with his No. 2 homer of the season. In the third, it was Martinez again, this time giving the Mariners another lead with his fifth home run.
But the Sox sent Garcia ahead in their half of the inning when Robin Ventura coaxed one of Johnson`s five walks and Fisk hit a towering fly that floated into the seats in left. It was Fisk`s fifth homer, all since May 24.
”Cory Snyder, he hit his ball,” said Johnson (6-6). ”But Fisk-granted, he`s a strong guy and everything, but without that wind blowing out, I don`t think that ball goes out.
”But that`s part of the game, and why this place is called `The Windy City.` ”
Well, that isn`t why, but never mind the civics lesson. Fisk`s hit would be the last one for the Sox until the ninth. Meanwhile, Seattle took control of things.
In the fifth, a double by Scott Bradley and Omar Vizquel`s single tied it at 3-all.
In the seventh, a single by Alvin Davis and Dave Cochrane`s double put Mariners on second and third and put Garcia in the clubhouse.
”He just wan`t popping the ball,” said Sox manager Jeff Torborg. ”He wasn`t real sharp, and normally, when he`s on, he`s real sharp.”
”I didn`t have real good control tonight,” said Garcia, who`s pitched well enough to win at least half of his six starts. ”I was behind a lot of hitters. But next time, I`ll do better.”
Torborg called on Donn Pall, Pall threw one pitch and got his ground ball, but it wound up in center field for a single that broke the tie. Ken Patterson came on and gave up another RBI single before he and Melido Perez held the Mariners hitless the rest of the way.
Johnson, with a 2.18 ERA in his last three starts, left in the seventh with nine strikeouts and two runners on, Scott Fletcher (hit in the thigh) and Ventura (another walk). Bill Swift caught Frank Thomas looking at a third strike to end that glimmer, and it was still 5-3 when the Sox made a little noise in the ninth.
With one out, Russ Swan, the third Seattle pitcher, dropped Lance Johnson`s popup for an error, and Dan Pasqua-pinch-hitting against the left-hander-drew a walk. Tim Raines singled to left, and it was 5-4.
Ventura flied into the second out, which brought Thomas up with the tying run at second and the winner on first.
Mariners manager Jim Lefebvre brought in Mike Jackson.
Two nights earlier, Thomas hit a grand slam off Jackson. This time, he wasn`t going to hit anything.
”Basically,” said Lefebvre, ”we had a base open, and we`re not going to give him anything cheap to hit.”
”Once I got behind 2-0,” said Jackson, ”I wasn`t going to throw him a fastball right over the plate and let him wallop the ball out of here, the way the balls fly out of this ballpark.
”I just figured, `If I don`t hit the corner, then I`ll put him on.` ”
He didn`t hit the corner, and he did put him on-which pushed the tying run to third for Fisk.
Who went down on three pitches, the last strike called.
”He threw three nasty sliders right on the money,” said Torborg. ”But we were there. We had the opportunity.”
They`ll have another one Thursday afternoon. The vines will still be elsewhere.
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Next: Seattle, Thursday, 12:30 p.m., WGN-TV Ch. 9
