AP

Seattle Mariners' Yuniesky Betancourt, second from left, is congratulated by his teammates after he hit a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning to give the Mariners a 6-5 win over the Oakland Athletics Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007 at Safeco Field in Seattle.

SEATTLE - Adam Jones led off the eighth inning with a pinch-hit solo homer and Yuniesky Betancourt singled home Charlton Jimerson with two outs in the ninth, giving the Seattle Mariners a 6-5 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.

Jones drove a 1-2 pitch from reliever Alan Embree just over the 385-foot sign in right-center field for his second homer since being called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Aug. 3.

Originally it was going to be Jeremy Reed pinch-hitting and facing Santiago Casilla. When Oakland manager Bob Geren saw Reed on deck, he called for Embree and Seattle manager John McLaren countered with Jones.

Embree finished the eighth and got the first out of the ninth before handing off to Andrew Brown. Jose Guillen greeted Brown (2-2) with a single to left and went to second on Ben Broussard's slow grounder to second. Brown intentionally walked Jose Vidro and Jimerson pinch-ran for Guillen.

Betancourt then lined an 0-1 pitch from Brown into center field, easily scoring Jimerson from second and setting off a mob celebration in the infield.

It was only the third win in the last 18 games for the Mariners, who remained 6 1/2 games back of New York in the AL wild-card race.

Seattle closer J.J. Putz (3-1) got the win, pitching a perfect ninth. It was just his fourth appearance since he last recorded a save on Aug. 24.

Mike Piazza had given Oakland the lead with a pinch-hit, two-run single in the seventh inning, his first hit in six at-bats as a pinch hitter this season.

Piazza lined a high fastball into left field, scoring Shannon Stewart and Nick Swisher, the latter beating Raul Ibanez's throw to the plate to give Oakland a 5-4 lead.

A's starter Dan Haren nearly made it through the seventh, leaving with two outs after Vidro's bloop double put runners at second and third. Santiago Casilla got Betancourt to ground out to end the threat.

Casilla was set to start the eighth before Geren made his switch to Embree. Jones' homer, which came after he fouled off a couple of pitches, was the second pinch-hit homer this season for Seattle.

"He's got a chance to be a really great player," McLaren said. "That was an impressive at-bat."

Ichiro Suzuki's two-out RBI single in the sixth scored Betancourt to give Seattle a 4-3 lead and made up for Suzuki's first error of the season an inning earlier. Seattle also got a clutch hit from Ibanez in the third, a two-out, two-run double, the type of hit missing during the Mariners' slide.

But the chance at a big inning ended when Swisher made a fine diving catch of Guillen's sinking liner to end the inning, saving two runs.

Vidro also ran the Mariners out of two possible runs, twice getting thrown out at home on ground balls to third.

Seattle starter Miguel Batista wasn't exactly efficient, letting the leadoff batter reach base in each of the first five innings and throwing 106 pitches in his six innings.

But Batista scrambled out of jams, backed by a defense that, despite committing three errors, came up with a pair of key inning-ending double plays in the second and fifth innings.

Batista allowed two earned runs and eight hits.

Stewart had four hits and scored three times for Oakland. Swisher drove in two runs and Kurt Suzuki had an RBI single in the fourth.

Haren gave up 12 hits for the second straight start but allowed only four earned runs. He struck out six.

Notes: Over the last 18 games, Oakland starters have just two wins, both by Joe Blanton. Haren was in line for the third until Jones' homer. ... Huber was activated off the DL before Wednesday's game after missing three months with a strained right forearm.