Mariners beat Orioles; lead wild card By DAVID GINSBURG, AP Sports Writer

Mariners beat Orioles; lead wild card By DAVID GINSBURG, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 58 minutes ago



BALTIMORE - Jose Vidro homered and drove in four runs, Ichiro Suzuki had three hits, and the Seattle Mariners beat Jeremy Guthrie and the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 Wednesday night.

ADVERTISEMENT


Vidro hit a two-run homer in the first inning and added sacrifice flies in the fourth and sixth. He went 3-for-3, scored twice, and the four RBIs matched a season high.

Jose Guillen and Raul Ibanez also homered for the Mariners, who have won eight of 11. It was the third home run in two games for Ibanez, who had gone 31 games without one until Tuesday night.

With the win, Seattle took over the lead in the AL wild card race. The Mariners lead Detroit by percentage points, and New York by a half game. The Tigers and Yankees both lost Wednesday night.

Seattle has outscored Baltimore 18-7 in the first two games of the series that concludes Thursday. Suzuki has six hits in the two games, lifting his career batting average against Baltimore to .384.

Felix Hernandez (8-6) gave up four runs and 10 hits in 6 2-3 innings. The victory improved the 21-year-old's career record to 24-24; he hasn't been over .500 since Aug. 2, 2006.

J.J. Putz got the final four outs for his 33rd save in 35 chances. He got Ramon Hernandez to ground out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning.

Miguel Tejada had three hits and his 1,000th career RBI, and Nick Markakis drove in two runs for the Orioles. Baltimore has lost three of four and six of nine.

Guthrie (7-4) allowed five earned runs and eight hits in four innings, his second-shortest outing of the season. The rookie's ERA swelled from 2.98 to 3.22, the highest it's been since May 13.

After yielding three earned runs in only one of his first 11 starts, Guthrie has done it in five of his last eight outings.

Seattle needed only seven pitches to take a 2-0 lead. After Suzuki hit a leadoff single, Vidro hit his fourth homer — the first since May 25.

Baltimore got a run in the bottom half when Corey Patterson tripled and scored on a single by Markakis.

After the Mariners scored an unearned run in the third, Baltimore pulled even in its half when Kevin Millar hit a run-scoring double and scored on a single by Tejada.

A sacrifice fly by Vidro and a two-run homer by Guillen made it 6-3 in the fourth. Ibanez homered to center on reliever Rob Bell's first pitch in the fifth inning, and Markakis hit a run-scoring groundout in the bottom half.

Notes:@ The game-time temperature was announced at 101 degrees. ... Guthrie has allowed 14 homers this season, four in his last two starts. ... Seattle OF Ben Broussard returned to the team after missing Tuesday's game to be his wife, who gave birth to the couple's second daughter Monday. ... The Mariners have been outscored 90-60 in the first inning this season.