Boston, MA – Boston, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - The playoff-hopeful Seattle Mariners stunned the Fenway Park faithful with five runs -- all with two outs -- in a ninth- inning rally that sent them to an improbable 5-3 win over the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox were the only team in the big leagues this season that had not lost when leading entering the ninth, going 44-0 in such games.
They held a seemingly comfortable 3-0 cushion heading into Seattle's last at- bat in the opener of this three-game series before Koji Uehara (5-4) imploded.
With two outs and a runner on second, Endy Chavez extended things with a hard- earned 10-pitch walk. Chris Denorfia dropped a base hit into right field to load the bases, and Austin Jackson lined a two-run double off the left-field wall on an 0-2 count to make it a one-run game.
"Unfortunately, Ackley found the Bermuda Triangle out there to drive in the two for the go-ahead runs," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "The lack of finish to Koji's split was the difference tonight."
Dustin Ackley followed with the go-ahead hit, a bloop between a lunging Brock Holt and Yoenis Cespedes down the left-field line.
Denorfia and Jackson scored the tying and eventual winning runs, and Robinson Cano tacked on an RBI single for good measure.
"That's a two-game swing for us," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said.
Fernando Rodney worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to earn his 37th save. Dominic Leone (6-2) picked up the win, Seattle's first in its last 10 visits to Boston, with a scoreless eighth.
Cespedes solved Felix Hernandez in the sixth with a colossal three-run homer, but that was the only offense Boston mustered in losing its sixth straight.
Joe Kelly and three relievers held Seattle to two hits over the first eight innings. Kelly appeared to injure his back in the fifth but stayed in the game and worked out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the game scoreless.
With runners on the corners in the sixth, Cespedes turned on a changeup that caught too much of the plate and cleared everything in left field.
Hernandez did not make it through six frames for the second straight start. His record streak of 16 consecutive outings allowing two or fewer runs in seven or more innings ended last Saturday when he only lasted five frames against the Tigers.
Seattle pulled its ace with two outs in the sixth on Friday after he coughed up three runs on five hits and two walks.
Game Notes
Hernandez fanned seven and has racked up 200 strikeouts for the sixth straight year ... Kelly allowed one hit and three walks over five innings ... Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts took an 88 m.p.h. changeup from Hernandez off the left earflap of his helmet in the fifth inning. He stayed in the game but was pinch-hit for in the sixth ... Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz went 2- for-2 with two walks and has reached base in nine straight plate appearances. He has reached base safely four times in four straight games, the first Red Sox player to accomplish the feat since Mike Andrews in 1970.
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