Griffey Hits 41st But Loses In 17th

With Randy Johnson watching the whole five hours and 23 minutes from the bench on possibly his last night in a Seattle uniform, Manny Ramirez led the Cleveland Indians to a 9-8 victory over the Mariners with a three-run homer in the 17th inning Thursday night.

It was the longest game, by innings, in Mariners history and tied the longest in the majors this season.

Ramirez

Paul Shuey (3-1), Cleveland's seventh pitcher, got the victory by pitching the final 2 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs in the bottom of the 17th and faced a one-out, bases-loaded situation, but ended the game by getting a groundout and a strikeout.

Seattle stranded 20 men on base.

Ken Griffey hit his AL-leading 41st homer in the fifth and Alex Rodriguez became the first 30-30 player in Mariners history, momentarily taking the focus off the Johnson trade watch.

The Mariners have until midnight EST Friday to trade their former Cy Young Award winner. If they don't, they'll lose him as a free agent at the end of the season.

Rodriguez became the first Mariners' player with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a season when he stole third base in the 14th inning. Rodriguez became only the eighth player in AL history to go 30-30.

Paul Assenmacher then walked Edgar Martinez and David Segui intentionally to load the bases before getting Charles Gipson to pop up to the catcher and Rico Rossy to bounce to third.

The Mariners had another chance to win it n the 16th, but Segui's double bounced over the fence, making Ken Griffey Jr. stop at third.

Dave Justice, who homered in the sixth inning, hit another one in the 12th to give Cleveland a 6-5 lead. Edgar Martinez hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to tie the score.

The Indians tied the score at 5 in the ninth off Mike Timlin. Jeff Branson opened the inning with a single and moved to second on Kenny Lofton's ground out. Vizquel followed with a single to shallow center field that brought in Branson as Griffey's throw to the plate was off-line.

Griffey, tying the AL home-run record of 41 by the end of July also is held by Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx, connected off Dave Burba to lead off the fifth inning.

That gave Seattle a 3-1 lead and the Mariners made it 5-1 on Russ Davis' sacrifice fly and John Marzano's RBI infield single.

The Indians knocked out Bill Swift in the sixth as Justice hit his 14th homer, a 411-foot to center. Cleveland scored a second run in the sixth on Sandy Alomar's double-play grounder.

The Indians got a run off Seattle's bullpen in the seventh on Justice's sacrifice fly.

Seattle starter Billy Swift and Cleveland's Dave Burba each went five innings. Swift allowed three runs on seven hits, while Burba gave up five runs on nine hits.

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