SEATTLE — Randy Johnson no longer has his mullet, his 99 mph heat or an ERA worthy of a Cy Young Award candidate. Nor did he pick up his 299th career victory in a nostalgia trip to Safeco Field on Friday night.

But the Big Unit clearly retains the admiration of the Pacific Northwest. A near-sellout crowd roared when Johnson exited a tie game in the sixth inning and the 6-foot-10 left-hander met the salute with his own, doffing his cap and emphatically stretching a long right arm into the air.
There were no triumphant gestures for the Giants, though. Two very bad offensive teams traded stunt punches until the 13th inning, when Jose Lopez’s bases-loaded single off Pat Misch hit the scoreboard in left field and sent the Mariners to a 2-1 victory.
The Giants have scored a total of five runs while losing five consecutive games.
“We met. We talked,” said Giants Manager Bruce Bochy, who addressed the team prior to the game. “These guys are trying. It’s going to take a hit or a win to get us going again.”
Aaron Rowand led off the game with a home run, but the Giants managed just one more hit and two more baserunners through 11 innings against left-hander Jason Vargas and three relievers.
The Mariners stranded 17 runners; the Giants stranded just three.
Johnson pitched at Safeco Field as a visitor for the fourth time after leaving Seattle in a trade during the 1998 season. He developed his put-away slider as a Mariner he called it “Mr. Snappy” and reintroduced his old friend to them at every occasion. With Seattle’s aggressive lineup expanding the zone, Johnson kept going to the sweeping pitch. He racked up most of his seven strikeouts on sliders that hovered a few inches above the dirt.
“My slider is the best pitch I have,” Johnson said. “Because that’s the case, I probably go to the well with it too often.”
By the sixth inning, Johnson said, “I didn’t have much more to go to the well with. They’d seem my fastball and slider all night.”
Johnson labored in the sixth and Jose Lopez grounded a hard single through the left side after the Mariners started runners from first and second. Wladimir Balentien scored without a play.
Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a bloop single to load the bases, forcing Bochy to get his five-time Cy Young Award winner. ohnson did a 360-degree turn as he walked back to the dugout, mindful it was probably the last time he’d be able to acknowledge fans in a city where he transformed himself from awkward thrower to an all-time great pitcher.
“It was nice on their part and I wanted to express my thank you to them,” Johnson said. “It’s been a lot of fun coming back and I’m very grateful for the opportunity and the years I had here.”
After Johnson’s ovation subsided, Brandon Medders struck out Franklin Gutierrez to strand three runners.
Johnson’s next start will come Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves at AT&T Park on Wednesday. If the Giants do not alter their rotation, his following days would fall at Washington and at Arizona.
The Mariners would have snapped the tie in the sixth if not for an athletic and inventive play by Pablo Sandoval, who continues to amaze at third base. With the bases loaded, Sandoval made a leaping lunge on Ichiro Suzuki’s chopper over his head. Without stopping to consider his options, Sandoval picked the only one he had. He made an off-balance yet accurate throw to the plate to force Kenji Johjima.
Left out of Seattle’s lineup was Ken Griffey Jr., who sits against most left-handers. Local fans were deprived a confrontation between arguably their franchise’s greatest pitching and hitting stars.
“It would’ve been nice,” Johnson said with a smirk. “I hear he had a bad hamstring.”
Griffey pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the ninth and flied out to the warning track.