Season Starts Early, Game Ends Late

The earliest start ever in baseball history ended with another late-inning victory for the Seattle Mariners.

Alex Rodriguez singled home the winning run with one out in the 12th inning Sunday night, lifting the Mariners over the Chicago White Sox, 3-2, in the first major league game played in March.

Randy Johnson struck out 14 in seven innings--part of a team record-tying 21 strikeouts by Seattle pitchers--and Frank Thomas hit a two-run homer for the White Sox.

The Mariners’ 43 comeback victories last season were part of the reason the 1995 AL West championship banner was raised in pregame ceremonies. And Seattle produced another successful rally Sunday.

The Mariners scored the tying run in the ninth on an RBI double by AL batting champion Edgar Martinez, and only a lucky bounce for the White Sox prevented Seattle from winning then.

In the 12th, though, Doug Strange reached with one out on an error by second baseman Ray Durham and took third on newcomer Russell Davis’ double. After an intentional walk to Dan Wilson, Rodriguez singled to right-center off loser Bill Simas.

Edwin Hurtado, the fifth Seattle pitcher, was the winner. Simas was Chicago’s seventh pitcher.

Until Sunday night, baseball’s earliest opener was April 2, 1984. The season was supposed to open last year again on April 2, but the strike delayed it until April 25.

The Mariner-White Sox game lasted 4 hours 7 minutes. By the time it ended, it was already April back in Chicago.

A sellout crowd of 57,467 at the Kingdome saw Thomas homer in the first--an inning in which Johnson struck out three. Johnson allowed only two more hits, and the 1995 AL Cy Young winner struck out Thomas in his next two at-bats.

In the ninth, the Mariners looked like they’d get the winning run when White Sox reliever Roberto Hernandez threw a ball to the backstop with a runner on third.

The ball bounced hard off the backstop, however, and ricocheted to catcher Ron Karkovice. He lunged to tag out a diving Joey Cora in a close play that brought Mariner Manager Lou Piniella onto the field to argue with plate umpire Jim McKean.

McKean and the umpiring crew wore the new red shirts AL umpires will wear at times this season.