SEATTLE, Sept. 15 A sacrifice fly by Jose Guillen drove in Ichiro Suzuki in the ninth inning Friday night, giving the Seattle Mariners a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay.
The ninth-inning run ended what had been a pitching duel between Tampa Bay's James Shields and Seattle's Felix Hernandez, neither of whom figured in the decision.
With Gary Glover (5-5) on the mound in the ninth, Suzuki led off the inning with a single and moved to third on a base hit by Adrian Beltre. With the infield in, Raul Ibanez hit a grounder to short for a single as Suzuki was forced to stay at third.
Suzuki came in moments later when Guillen lofted a fly ball to right.
The ninth-inning run gave the win to closer J.J. Putz (4-1), who had worked the top half of the inning.
Shields allowed four hits and a run over eight innings, while Hernandez surrendered a run on six hits in 7 2/3 innings.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
