Griffey Puts a Real Cramp in Tigers’ Style

On a night of plentiful plot twists at Tiger Stadium, David Segui provided the Seattle Mariners with the perfect ending Tuesday.

Segui’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth gave Seattle a 4-2 victory--and spoiled an outstanding performance by Detroit’s Justin Thompson, who had a perfect game through six innings.

The victory was the Mariners’ seventh in nine games and put them over .500 for the first time this season at 19-18.

“Let’s stay there,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “That’s a great way for us to start a road trip.”

Thompson (2-5) retired the first 18 batters and had a one-hitter with a 2-1 lead and two outs in the ninth when Rich Amaral singled up the middle and Ken Griffey Jr. beat out an infield hit.

Griffey, who pulled up at first in pain but stayed in the game after being checked by a trainer, then scored the go-ahead run from first after Amaral when Segui doubled off the left-field wall.

Griffey was assisted by teammates as he limped to the dugout with what the Mariners said is a tight right quadriceps. Piniella said Griffey has had the problem since a home-plate collision with umpire Rich Garcia last month.

“He’s OK,” Piniella said. “My concern was Junior might not be able to score from first base because of the cramp. But he flew around there.”

Edgar Martinez then hit an RBI double off Todd Jones to make it 4-2.

Thompson fell to 1-4 in his career against Seattle.

“I made all the correct pitches until the last inning, and it depends on that,” Thompson said. “It’ll be hard for the next day or so to let a loss like that go. Believe me, it’s frustrating. The more I think about it, I get angry, and I can’t let that happen.”

Paul Spoljaric (2-0) got the victory despite giving up a two-run homer to Bobby Higginson that gave Detroit a 2-1 lead in the eighth. Bobby Ayala pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

Thompson was perfect through six innings but fell behind, 1-0, when Alex Rodriguez led off the seventh with his 13th homer.

Thompson was bidding for the first perfect game in Detroit history and the Tigers’ first no-hitter since Jack Morris did it April 4, 1984, at Chicago.

Tampa Bay 6, Cleveland 5--Kevin Stocker’s two-run homer in the 14th inning off Mike Jackson lifted the Devil Rays over the Indians at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Tampa Bay blew a four-run lead and then fell behind, 5-4, in the 14th when Kenny Lofton tripled off Julio Sanchez (1-0) and scored on a sacrifice fly by Manny Ramirez.

Stocker’s home run off Jackson (0-1), the sixth Indian pitcher, was his fifth of the season, matching a career high. It came on a 3-1 pitch from Jackson, who yielded a leadoff single to Aaron Ledesma.

The Indians, who have lost five in a row, had battled back after committing three errors--one of them Omar Vizquel’s miscue that stopped the fourth-longest streak of errorless games by a shortstop in major league history--and allowing four unearned runs in the first inning.

Vizquel’s streak, which covered 301 chances, ended at 70 games when he appeared to misjudge second baseman David Bell’s throw on a force play that could have started an inning-ending double play.

Instead, the Devil Rays went on to score four runs, including one on Bartolo Colon’s wild pitch and two on Bobby Smith’s single that made it 4-0.

Minnesota 7, Baltimore 4--The Twins broke out of a slump with 13 hits and two home runs, including Alex Ochoa’s tiebreaking two-run homer in the seventh inning at Minneapolis.

Marty Cordova added an RBI single in the three-run seventh as the Twins won for the fifth time in 14 games with a much-needed lift from their hitters. Minnesota came into the game with a 19-inning scoreless streak and hitting just .224 as a team in the last 20 games.

Paul Molitor went three for four and five Twins had two hits, including Ochoa, who drove in three runs after coming into the game on a five-for-28 skid with just two RBIs in his last 12 games.

Ochoa snapped a 4-4 tie when he drove an 0-1 pitch to left-center field off reliever Arthur Rhodes. It was the second homer Rhodes gave up after inheriting a 4-3 lead from Scott Kamieniecki with one out in the sixth.

LaTroy Hawkins (2-3) won his second consecutive start. He gave up 10 hits in seven innings, striking out two and walking one.

The loss was the 16th in the last 25 games for Baltimore, which blew leads of 3-1 and 4-3. B.J. Surhoff hit a two-run homer for the Orioles, and Cal Ripken Jr. was four for four with two doubles and two runs after going four for 20 in the first six games of Baltimore’s trip.

Texas 6, Boston 3--Aaron Sele beat his former Boston teammates for the first time and Tom Goodwin’s two-run homer highlighted a six-run second at Arlington, Texas, as the Rangers won their fifth in a row.

Sele (6-2) had lost his last two starts, including a 5-3 defeat to the Red Sox in Boston on May 1, and was in trouble throughout his 5 2/3 innings.

The Red Sox stranded seven runners over the first four innings, but Sele worked out of the jams, leaving runners on third in the first and fourth.

Texas sent 10 men to the plate in the second against rookie Brian Rose (1-4).

John Wetteland pitched the ninth for his 10th save in 10 chances.

New York 3, Kansas City 2--Bernie Williams homered for the first time this season and David Wells pitched eight strong innings as the Yankees won at home.

Williams, who hit 21 homers last year, hadn’t connected since last Sept. 28--a span of 119 at-bats--when he hit a 3-2 pitch in the first off Glendon Rusch (3-5) for a two-run homer.

Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save as the Yankees improved to 25-7.