Vaughn's Granny Lifts BoSox

Mo Vaughn strode to the plate -- bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, a roaring crowd at Boston's home opener no longer thinking about Randy Johnson's eight brilliant innings against the Red Sox.

With one stroke, Vaughn could win a game his team trailed 7-2 after eight innings and show once more why the Red Sox should re-sign him.

"It was a tremendous moment," he said.

And he was up to it, hitting a grand slam against the last of Seattle's four shaky relievers to give Boston a 9-7 win Friday over the Mariners.

"It doesn't get any better than that," Boston's John Valentin said. ``It's pretty amazing."

In eight innings, Johnson struck out 15 and allowed only two hits and eight runners.

In the ninth, the Red Sox had seven runners. Every batter in the inning scored as the team ended a three-game losing streak in which it totaled just three runs.

Rich Garces (1-0) got the last two outs in the ninth for the win. Mike Timlin (0-1) was the loser.

"It's really sad," said Heathcliff Slocumb, Seattle's first reliever of the game. "Randy did his job. He deserved to win."

But the Mariners' bullpen couldn't get a single out after manager Lou Piniella lifted Johnson, who had thrown 131 pitches on a brisk afternoon.

"This early in the season, cold weather, I don't expect him to throw 160," Seattle's Alex Rodriguez said. "He did a great job."

In the ninth, so did the Red Sox, especially Vaughn, who has criticized club management about its failure to extend his contract, which expires after this season.

"My fight is not with the front office," he said after hitting his third homer of the season and seventh grand slam of his career. "It's with the other ballclub, the other pitcher."

"If we're going to continue negotiations, we're not going to talk about it publicly," general manager Dan Duquette said. "A lot of left-handed hitters take the day off against Randy Johnson, but Mo was out there."

With a 7-2 lead, Slocumb gave up a single to Troy O'Leary, a walk to Mark Lemke and a run-scoring double to Darren Bragg. Tony Fossas walked Mike Benjamin, reloading the bases. Timlin came in and allowed a single by Nomar Garciaparra and hit Valentin with a pitch, making the score 7-5.

Lefty Paul Spoljaric entered to face Vaughn, who had struck out three times against Johnson. This time, hwon the game on Spoljaric's second pitch with a 392-foot shot into the right-field seats on an 0-1 count.

"That's what a professional is," Vaughn said. ``You don't get caught up in the whole day. You get caught up in each separate at bat."

As he circled the bases, he got his second standing ovation. The first came when Vaughn came to the plate for the first time.

Three of Seattle's pitchers in the ninth -- Slocumb, Timlin and Spoljaric -- came to the team last July 31 at the trading deadline. The fourth, Fossas, signed as a free agent in the off-season.

The bullpen's blowup -- "they've had success. It's confidence they lack," Piniella said -- ruined an outstanding performance by Johnson. He allowed only Valentin's first-inning double and Damon Buford's two-run homer that put Boston ahead 2-0 in the fourth.

Johnson, who struggled in his first two starts of the season, struck out at least 15 batters for the 15th time in his career and every Boston starter at least once.

Seattle went ahead with three runs off rookie Brian Rose in the sixth. A walk to Joey Cora, a single by Rodriguez and a double by Edgar Martinez tied the game 2-2 and knocked out Rose.

Third baseman Valentin then fielded David Segui's grounder but threw the ball in the dirt past first baseman Vaughn for an error. Vaughn trotted after the ball, allowing Segui to beat his throw home for the go-ahead run.

The Mariners added two runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Glenallen Hill and Dan Wilson and two in the ninth on a triple by Rodriguez and a sacrifice fly by Martinez.

Johnson, 54-10 in his last 84 starts, struck out the side in the first and added two strikeouts in the second. He had two more in the fourth and struck out the side again in the fifth, giving him 10 strikeouts for the 84th time in his 265 major league games.

In Johnson's first start on March 31, a 10-9 loss to Cleveland in which he wasn't involved in the decision, he allowed six runs and 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings. In a 10-5 loss to Boston last Sunday, he gave up seven runs on six hits in six innings.

Seattle missed by one the American League record of nine consecutive games at the start of a season with at least one homer. It is shared by the 1994 Toronto Blue Jays and 1997 Cleveland Indians.

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