Mariners Fall Further From Wild-Card Spot

Norm Charlton sat sullenly in a corner of the clubhouse, nursing a beer and staring into space. He spoke softly as somber Seattle teammates whispered a few feet away.

The Mariners’ playoff hopes dimmed Thursday as the Oakland Athletics scored four runs in the eighth inning, three off Charlton, to win, 7-5, at Oakland.

The loss, combined with Baltimore’s victory over Toronto, means any combination of Baltimore victories and Seattle losses totaling two would eliminate the Mariners.

After scoring three runs in the top of the eighth to take a 5-3 lead, the Mariners gave the lead right back. Mike Jackson opened the inning by walking Mark McGwire and striking out Terry Steinbach. Charlton (4-7) walked Matt Stairs and Scott Spiezio loaded the bases with an infield single.

Two batters later Charlton walked Mike Bordick, and then Tony Batista hit a two-run single.

Baltimore 4, Toronto 1--Brady Anderson hit his 48th home run and Cal Ripken added a three-run shot as the Orioles reduced their magic number in the wild-card race to two by defeating the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Baltimore’s victory eliminated Boston and put the idle White Sox one game from elimination.

Boston 5, New York 3--The Red Sox ripped Jimmy Key (12-11) for four runs in the first inning and defeated the Yankees at Boston.

In the first, Jeff Frye doubled and scored the first run on Jose Canseco’s two-out single. Canseco went to second on Mike Greenwell’s single and scored on Bill Haselman’s single that sent Greenwell to third. Haselman took second on an error by Key. Rookie Rudy Pemberton capped the rally with a two-run single.