Mariners Make Melvin Sweat Out First Victory

If all of the Seattle Mariners’ wins are this tumultuous, new Manager Bob Melvin might not last long.

Ben Davis hit a leadoff homer in the 11th inning as the Mariners blew two late leads but still got Melvin his first victory, beating the Athletics, 7-6, Thursday at Oakland.

Seattle led, 4-3, in the ninth, but Scott Hatteberg tied it with a run-scoring single off closer Kazuhiro Sasaki. After Seattle’s Mike Cameron drove home pinch-runner Mark McLemore with a sacrifice fly off Keith Foulke in the top of the 10th, Oakland’s Terrence Long hit a one-out homer to right off Jeff Nelson (1-0) to tie it again.

The excitement was lost on Melvin, the San Francisco Bay Area native who took over for Lou Piniella in the off-season.

“They made me work for that first one,” Melvin said. “I don’t know how many of those games you can survive in a season.”

Davis’ first hit of the season was a homer to left-center off Ricardo Rincon (0-1), and the catcher nearly sprinted around the bases.

“I don’t hit very many of them, so I don’t want anyone to notice when I hit one,” Davis said of his 27th career homer. “It’s going to be like this a lot in our division. There’s going to be a lot of close games, and we’re going to have to get used to it.”

McLemore added a run-scoring double in the 11th, and it turned out that the Mariners needed the cushion.

Oakland loaded the bases with a single, an error and an intentional walk. Nelson gave up a sacrifice fly to Jermaine Dye before striking out Adam Piatt with runners on second and third to end it.

Ichiro Suzuki had three hits, and Edgar Martinez drove in two runs as the Mariners avoided a season-opening series sweep and gave Oakland Manager Ken Macha his first loss.

It was the first of two makeup games from the teams’ canceled trip to Japan; the second will be played on June 30.

Boston 14, Tampa Bay 5 -- Kevin Millar homered and drove in four runs to lead the Red Sox at St. Petersburg, Fla. Millar went six for 12 in the series with two homers and six RBIs for Boston, which outscored Tampa Bay, 34-24, and won the last three games of the four-game series.

Minnesota 3, Detroit 0 -- Kyle Lohse gave up two hits in eight innings and retired the first 16 batters before Omar Infante’s double to left-center with one out in the sixth. The game drew 8,862, the smallest crowd at Comerica Park, which opened in 2000.

Cleveland 3, Baltimore 0 -- Brian Anderson pitched eight innings of four-hit ball and Matt Lawton hit a three-run homer for the Indians at Baltimore. The crowd of 18,470 was the lowest attendance in the 12-year history of Camden Yards.