" Long after the starters stopped dueling, the bullpens carried on the fight, holding on tightly to the 1-1 tie that Kevin Slowey and Cliff Lee handed over.

Into the 10th inning the tie remained, until Jose Mijares took over for the Twins and familiar chants of "I-CHI-RO! I-CHI-RO!" broke out Wednesday night at Safeco Field.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Ichiro Suzuki took two mighty cuts, each between two balls. He fouled off Mijares' next six pitches before slapping a grounder up the middle. Second baseman Matt Tolbert dived, made the stop and flipped the ball to J.J. Hardy. Replays seemed to show Hardy caught the ball in time for the out, but second base umpire Dale Scott ruled Josh Wilson safe. By the time Hardy realized Scott's call, pinch-runner Ryan Langerhans had rounded third. Hardy threw home, and Mijares cut off the throw, but it wouldn't have been in time anyway. Langerhans popped up from his slide and ran to join the mob of Mariners celebrating a 2-1 win over the Twins.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire hurried out from the dugout to argue, but with the Mariners already filtering into their clubhouse, his argument had little chance of succeeding.

"The replays show he's out, bottom line. We don't need to talk about that anymore. It's all out there for you. Just go watch the replays," said a clearly agitated Gardenhire after the game.

Could Tolbert have done anything differently?

"You get the forceout at second, that's your easiest play," Gardenhire said. "It's right in front of you, and he did."

Before Mijares vs. Ichiro, it was Minnesota vs. Lee.

The Twins hadn't seen Lee since he was pitching for the Indians last season. They hadn't seen this version of Slowey since he was pitching against the Indians in April.

The matchup, with each pitcher channeling the most dominant version of himself, played out as quite a duel. Lee worked ahead of Twins batters all evening, Slowey's pitch count concerns disappeared during a night of efficiency for the right-hander, and when both starters turned the mound over to their bullpens — Lee after eight innings, Slowey after seven — the results were strikingly similar. Both pitchers gave up one run on five hits and walked one batter. Slowey struck out three; Lee fanned seven. Neither figured in the final decision.

For four innings neither starter allowed a run, and early on Slowey dealt with fewer threats. Lee, 4-1 with a 2.60 earned-run average in his past eight starts against Minnesota, escaped from runners on second and third with one out in the fourth inning, then caught Matt Tolbert trying to steal second in the fifth.

By the time Milton Bradley stepped in to lead off Seattle's fifth inning, Slowey had sent 12 of his first 13 batters back to the dugout. Bradley singled, then stole second when Tolbert tripped on the bag while readying to field Joe Mauer's throw from home. When Bradley stole third, Mauer didn't even manage a throw to contest the play.

Slowey never looked over at Bradley too see how sizable a lead he had off second base. It was, Gardenhire said, the starter's only mistake of the night.

"A guy can't get a lead like that on you," Gardenhire said. He's too good of a pitcher for that."

Said Slowey: "I would probably step off if I would go and do it again."

That left Bradley on third with one out for Casey Kotchman, who lifted a fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly that scored the first run of the game. "