Boone leads M’s to Texas sweep

By Stephen Hawkins

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas – Bret Boone ran his RBI total to 135 with a two-run single as the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 7-5 Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.

The Mariners, who have swept a club-record 15 series this season, extended their AL record with their 57th road victory. The major league record of 60 by the 1906 Chicago Cubs is out of reach because Seattle has only two more road games.

Seattle trailed 4-1 before a five-run outburst in the fifth inning that included Boone’s hit and a two-run double by Stan Javier. Carlos Guillen’s run-scoring single capped the rally and chased Rob Bell (5-5).

Gabe Kapler hit two solo homers for Texas, and Alex Rodriguez took over the AL lead and set a franchise record with his 49th homer.

Paul Abbott (16-4) worked five innings for the victory and is 14-2 his last 21 starts. He gave up four runs and six hits, with five strikeouts and three walks.

Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched the ninth for his 42nd save in 49 opportunities. It was his first save since Sept. 2.

Bell gave up six runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings, and also struck out five and walked five. He is 1-5 his last 10 starts after going 4-0 in his first seven after coming to Texas from Cincinnati in a June 15 trade.

Rodriguez put the Rangers, playing their final home game of the season, ahead 2-1 with his two-run homer in the third.

The Rangers’ franchise record for homers was 48 by Frank Howard for the Washington Senators in 1969, three years before the team moved to Texas. The 49 homers also is the most ever by a major league infielder other than a first baseman.

The Rangers led 4-1 in the fourth after Kapler hit a leadoff homer and Frank Catalanotto had an RBI single. Kapler added a two-out homer, his 16th, in the seventh.

Seattle got its initial run in the first when, after two outs, Boone was hit by a pitch and came home on Mike Cameron’s single. Dan Wilson hit a solo homer in the seventh.

Ichiro Suzuki had two hits, increasing his AL-leading total to 231, and had three of Seattle’s five stolen bases to push his season total to 53.

Notes: DH Al Martin was the only player in Seattle’s starting lineup without a hit. … Kapler has three career two-homer games. Two of them are with Texas, the first coming April 3, 2000, in his first game with the Rangers. … For the second game in a row, the Mariners tied a club record with five stolen bases. … Seattle’s last sweep of Texas was Sept. 18-20, 1995, at the Kingdome. The Mariners also had a three-game sweep at The Ballpark in Arlington that season. … The Rangers finished 41-41 at home and drew 2.8 million fans this season. … Texas played 82 home games for the third time in club history. The extra game was because of a postponement at Baltimore following a train wreck.