SEATTLE -- The way Raul Ibanez has been swinging the bat lately, you almost expect him to do exactly what he did in the ninth inning Thursday night -- hit a walk-off home run.
The Mariners left fielder continued his torrid streak with a leadoff home run into the right-field bleachers to power Seattle to a 2-1 victory over the AL East-leading Rays in front of 25,423 at Safeco Field.
"He hit it so hard," manager Jim Riggleman said, "it didn't have time to go foul. It was a good piece of hitting to keep that ball fair."
The line drive came on the fourth pitch Rays reliever Dan Wheeler threw. The only question was whether the ball Ibanez crushed would stay fair.
It did, and he circled the bases with his 18th home run of the season, the first one that ended a game.
He now has four walk-off home runs in his career. This was his first since April 20, 2004.
"It's a great feeling," said Ibanez. "You don't really realize what's going on until you run around the bases. It really is a great feeling to help your team win."
He has done quite a bit of that lately.
"This is about as locked in as I've seen anybody right now, the way Raul swings," Mariners closer J.J. Putz said. "And it just seems like the situations just seem to keep finding him."
Ibanez drove in six runs in one inning on Monday night, when the Mariners scored 10 runs in the seventh inning and overcame a six-run deficit to beat the Twins. Ibanez drove in five runs the following night in another Seattle win. He is now 12-for-28 with three home runs and 16 RBIs during the current homestand, which has three games remaining.
The Mariners (45-70) won for the fourth time in their past five games.
Starter Felix Hernandez worked the first eight innings, but had to settle for another no-decision -- his eighth this season -- and Putz looked like his former, dominating self when he pitched out of a first-and-third, one-out predicament in the ninth inning to keep the series opener tied.
He hit 98 mph on the radar gun while striking out Cliff Floyd and Dioner Navarro.
"J.J. was really good," Riggleman said. "That was electric. ... Cliff Floyd is a veteran hitter, and has always been a good RBI man. To get a strikeout there was huge, and then to strike out Navarro, who is hitting .300 and swinging the bat well."
The first two hours of the game featured a splendid duel between a pair of right-handers, the 22-year-old Hernandez and 25-year-old Andy Sonnanstine.
The Rays scored a run in the fourth inning, and that's all the scoring there was until the eighth, when Wladimir Balentien doubled off the wall in right-center, advanced to third on a single to right by Bryan LaHair and scored on Yuniesky Betancourt's sacrifice fly.
The fact that the recently-promoted Balentien and LaHair were instrumental in tying the game was noticed in the home clubhouse afterwards.
"It's a great experience for them," Ibanez said. "They are getting an opportunity to learn at this level in games like this, when we're playing good, quality teams. We are holding our own against good teams, and that is a good thing to build on for next season.
"The young guys are doing their jobs, doing their work, grinding it out and battling. I don't see why we can't continue to do this."
And with a veteran like Ibanez around, one mighty swing can produce an instant win.
"Ibanez is good," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I'm not sure what the pitch was, but he was able to get it and won the game for them. Andy was really good for us and [Hernandez] was good for them, as well."
Hernandez probably should have had a shutout after eight innings.
The chances of him throwing a wild pitch are extremely low. He went into the game having thrown 2,030 pitches this season and only three of them were wild enough to advance runners.
The fourth one cost him a run -- and possibly his eighth win.
With runners on first and third and two outs in the fourth inning, Hernandez threw a breaking pitch that hit the ground just in front of catcher Jeff Clement's glove. The ball caromed off to the side, towards the third-base dugout, allowing Carl Crawford to score from third base.
"I think Jeff knows he has to block that ball," Riggleman said. "I would have thought it was a passed ball, not a wild pitch. Jeff felt bad about that ball getting away from him, but Felix is not an easy guy to handle. His stuff is moving. He has tremendous stuff on his breaking pitches and when you call for one of them, you can't assume you know where it's going to go. That one got away from him."
But thanks to some more late-inning heroics, this one didn't get away from the Mariners.
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