Presented by PINNACLE WINDOWS & DOORS.
This Day In Sports…June 2, 2016, 10 years ago today:
The biggest comeback in Seattle Mariners history, as the M’s rally from a 12-2 deficit in San Diego to beat the Padres by a field goal, 16-13. Seattle scored a combined 14 runs in the sixth and seventh innings on 12 hits, two walks and a hit batter to do it. Nine of the hits came with two outs in the seventh, when the Mariners looped together seven straight run-scoring singles, kind of like that “conga line” in the old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Three beleaguered San Diego hurlers threw 66 pitches in that inning alone.
Kyle Seager delivered two of Seattle’s biggest hits—a two-run double in the sixth and two-run single in the seventh as he went 3-for-5 with five RBIs on the night. But the hit that gave the Mariners hope when all seemed lost came from a 33-year-old, 250-pound Korean rookie pinch-hitter, Dae-Ho Lee, who narrowed the San Diego lead to 12-7 with a three-run homer that capped the sixth. Lee became the first M’s rookie with two pinch-hit homers in the same season in franchise history. He also had one of those seventh-inning singles.
The Mariners rally for a victory after being down by double digits after the fifth inning marked the first such comeback in the majors in 26 years. (The Philadelphia Phillies overcame an 11-1 deficit after seven innings to beat the Dodgers 12-11 in 1990 in Los Angeles.) The M’s also became just the seventh visiting team in MLB history to overcome a 10-run hole to win. Seattle’s previous record for largest comeback win was eight runs, when it rallied from a 9-1 deficit to the California Angels for an 11-10 triumph in 1996.
Longtime Seattle fans remembered when their team was on the flip side of that coin on August 5, 2001. That’s when Cleveland staged the biggest comeback in big league history against the Mariners. Trailing 12-0 in the third inning and 14-2 in the seventh, the Indians mounted a stupendous rally and beat the M’s 15-14 in 11 innings at Jacobs Field. It was an aberration for the M’s, as they won an American League record 116 games in 2001.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
