Devil Rays Fight To Victory

Rickey Henderson provided the early excitement with a leadoff home run. Mark McLemore delivered his big hit later on.

Henderson homered in his first at-bat for Seattle, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays stopped their six-game losing streak Saturday with a fight-interrupted, 4-3 win over the Mariners.

Henderson, who made his Mariners debut as a pinch-runner the previous night, hit his major league-record 76th leadoff home run. Signed Wednesday night after being released by the Mets, he went 1-for-3 with two walks.

"I was once told if you come up to the plate in the first inning and take a good cut at it, you make the pitcher nervous," Henderson said. "Usually, I hit a few home runs that way. I'm not really surprised about what I've been doing."

Players from both benches and dugouts emptied onto the field and there was about a five-minute melee at the mound. McLemore was ejected, as was Mariners reliever Arthur Rhodes. The skirmish interrupted play for about 15 minutes.

"I wasn't throwing at him," Yan said. "I threw the pitch because I didn't want to stop. But I don't want to throw at anybody."

Said McLemore: "He was throwing at me and I didn't like it. I did what I had to do."

McLemore, 35, said it was the first time in his major league career that he had chargethe mound. Yan said it was the first time he'd ever been charged.

McLemore said he thought Yan was mad at him for calling time.

"No, the ball didn't slip. It was intentional," said McLemore, who expects to be suspended. "I did something that was against the rules. I'm going to have to suffer the consequences no matter what they may be."

First base umpire Bruce Froemming took Yan's side.

"He threw the pitch, but there was no intention whatsoever to hit him," Froemming said.

The Mariners announced Yan was ejected, but he was not. Yan went back out to pitch, but the Mariners were upset because they thought he had been thrown out.

At that point, Devil Rays manager Larry Rothschild decided to take out his starting pitcher.

"I thought it had been too much time," Rothschild said. "I decided not to leave him out there."

In the eighth, players came back on the field when Mike DiFelice of Tampa Bay squared to bunt and Jose Paniagua's pitch was inside. DiFelice fouled it off and first base coach Jose Cardenal ran in to stop DiFelice from going out to the mound.

Seattle had its season-high four-game winning streak stopped. Despite allowing a run in the eighth on consecutive doubles by John Olerud and Edgar Martinez, Roberto Hernandez pitched the final two innings for his third save.

Henderson made his first at-bat in a Mariners uniform a memorable one. He hit a 1-1 pitch 366 feet to left field for his 279th career homer, and the Safeco Field crowd of 40,665 cheered wildly for Seattle's new hero.

Henderson arrived in Seattle on Friday night and scoring the tying run in the eighth inning of a 7-6 victory.

Tampa Bay scored twice in the seventh off Rob Ramsay (0-1) and Paniagua for a 4-2 lead.

With one out, Kevin Stocker walked and Miguel Cairo singled. Williams hit an RBI single that Henderson misplayed in left field for an error, and Fred McGriff later walked with the bases loaded.

The Devil Rays scored twice in the third to take a 2-1 lead. Vinny Castilla singled home a un and Greg Vaughn had an RBI grounder.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 15th home run for Seattle, extending his hitting streak to 15 games.

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