Curtis, Yankees Sink Seattle 4-3

Even after all his years in the game, Joe Torre marvels at the way baseball strategy has a way of working out.

Twice on Wednesday, Torre had the hit-and-run sign on to Chad Curtis in the eighth inning with pinch-runner Homer Bush at first base. With the count 1-2, the New York Yankees manager let Curtis swing away against Bobby Ayala.

"I put him in the hole and he winds up hitting a home run," Torre said after Curtis' two-run homer gave the Yankees a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Hideki Irabu's first start of the season.

"He has four hits against him and three are home runs. I guess you'd say he's been comfortable against him."

Curtis homered 410 feet over the center-field fence off Ayala (0-1) after Ayala walked pinch-hitter Tim Raines to lead off the inning, giving New York a 4-2 lead.

"I was trying to shoot the ball out there somewhere," Curtis said. "I was trying to move the runner. Every now and then you get a pitch you can handle and that was today."

The Yankees, who will play Oakland in their home opener Friday, beat the Mariners for the second straight day to complete their season-opening road trip at 3-4.

The Mariners wound up their season-opening homestand at 3-5, leaving manager Lou Piniella with a pained look on his face.

"There's nothing to assess," Piniella said. "What is there to assess? Well, we didn't start the homestand like we would have liked. That's for sure."

The consecutive wins at the Kingdome were the first for the Yankees since they swept a four-game series from the Mariners on July 14-17, 1994. The Yankees are 6-18 in Seattle since then, including the 1995 playoffs.

Graeme Lloyd (1-0), the third Yankees pitcher, pitched one-third of an inning for the win. Irabu went five innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks.

Torre said Irabu was strictly a one-pitch pitcher against the Mariners. He said Irabu threw one pitch other than a fastball in his five innings.

"He had an outstanding fastball," Torre said. "It was outstanding because he had different speeds. That enabled him to get everybody out with the fastball."

Mike Stanton gave up a leadoff homer in the ninth to Russ Davis, followed by singles to Joey Cora and Alex Rodriguez. But he came back to retire Ken Griffey Jr. on a fly to left and Edgar Martinez on a 6-4-3 double play for the Yankees' first save of the season.

Seattle's Ken Cloude pitched 6 2-3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits and four walks.

Davis also hit a solo shot off Mike Buddie to lead off the seventh to tie the score at 2.

"It's frustrating," Davis said. "I can't really look at what I did. We just came up a little short. You know, Irabu threw the ball pretty good. So you've got to give him a little credit."

The Yankees had taken the lead in the top of the seventh on Bernie Williams' RBI single off Tony Fossas, scoring Derek Jeter. Jeter doubled off Cloude, who was then replaced by Fossas.

The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on David Segui's triple off a Kingdome speaker in right field and a wild pitch by Irabu.

The Yankees tied the score in the fifth on Darryl Strawberry's double, a wild pitch by Cloude and Jorge Posada's single.

Notes: