M’s outslug Jays

SEATTLE — Not many teams can play a power game with the Toronto Blue Jays, but Monday night the Seattle Mariners beat them at it.

The Mariners matched the Jays with three home runs, including back-to-back homers by Mike Carp and Casper Wells in the eighth inning that launched them to a 6-5 victory at Safeco Field.

Carp also homered in the third inning. He has a 15-game hitting streak and has reached base safely in 23 straight, the longest active streak in the major leagues.

Since being called up from Class AAA Tacoma on July 19 and given an everyday role, Carp has supplied the productive bat from the fourth spot in the lineup that the Mariners had lacked all season.

“He puts up good at bats, he sees the ball and he doesn’t give in to anything,” manager Eric Wedge said. “He’s hitting with confidence. He’s always believed in himself. Confidence is the name of the game at any level, particularly up here at the highest level. When he does make outs, he handles t hem professionally and he learns from it.”

The Blue Jays’ 136 homers entering the game ranked fifth in the American League while the Mariners’ 72 were last.

The statistic became reality in a hurry when Eric Thames hit a two-run homer off Mariners starter Michael Pineda in the first inning.

The Mariners scored three times in the second inning on Trayvon Robinson’s RBI double, Jack Wilson’s RBI single and Ichiro Suzuki’s sacrifice fly, but the Blue Jays erased that a short time later.

One out into the third, Adam Lind hit a two-run homer off Pineda. And, to start the fourth, Brett Lawrie homered to give Toronto a 5-4 lead.

It was that kind of night for Pineda, who allowed six hits _ three of them home runs ) and four walks in five innings before he was pulled.

“As consistently as he has pitched this year, he’s not going to be as good every time out,” Wedge said. “What he needs to understand is that when he left the ballgame, we were still in the ballgame. He needs to feel good about that.”

Carp’s first home run, an opposite-field drive to left off Jays starter Henderson Alvarez in the third inning, tied the score 4-4 before Lawrie homered.

The hidden heroes for the Mariners were a couple of rookie relievers, Dan Cortes and Tom Wilhelmsen.

Cortes pitched two scoreless innings after relieving Pineda, and Wilhelmsen pitched a scoreless eighth, keeping the Blue Jays’ lead at 5-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, against Jays reliever Trever Miller, Carp connected on a two-strike, no-ball pitch and homered to right field, tying the score.

The Jays brought in right-hander Jon Rauch to face Wells, who also fell into a two-strike hole before hitting the go-ahead homer to left. Wells, acquired July 30 in a trade with the Tigers, has homered in each of the past three games.

Brandon League allowed a two-out single to Thames but got Jose Bautista, whose 34 home runs lead the American League, to ground out.

It was League’s 30th save and finished the Mariners’ third straight victory and their fourth in the past five games.

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog and follow his Twitter updates at @kirbyarnold.