SEATTLE – Their backs to the basement, the Seattle Mariners took an unconventional path to stay out of it Friday night.
The Mariners, next to last in the American League in home runs, beat the Kansas City Royals with their biggest power display of the season at Safeco Field.
They hit six home runs, including a two-run blast by Bret Boone in the eighth inning that overcame a one-run deficit, and beat the Royals 7-5.
Miguel Olivo hit two home runs and was part of the Mariners’ first back-to-back-to-back barrage in nearly eight years when the bottom three hitters – Olivo, Jose Lopez and Hiram Bocachica – homered consecutively in the fifth inning.
It was the first time the Mariners had done that since Sept. 21, 1996, when Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez homered in the third inning against Oakland.
“Same caliber guys,” M’s manager Bob Melvin quipped.
Ah, levity. For the first time all week, it also returned to the Mariners.
The victory not only ended a four-game losing streak, it ensured that the Mariners – at least for a day – aren’t the worst team in the American League. They’re 47-80 and the Royals 45-81 going into today’s doubleheader.
Scott Spiezio also homered, following Boone’s blast with a drive into the right-field seats that gave the Mariners their final two-run cushion.
The six homers were the most the Mariners have hit at Safeco Field in one game, and it was the most since May 2, 2002, when they hit seven at Chicago.
Back then, the Mariners had the power to do such a thing. This season it’s been lacking so much that the Mariners went into the game ahead of only the Toronto Blue Jays for the fewest home runs (107) in the league.
“We’ll take them any way we can get them,” Boone said. “I’ve said it a lot this year. Any win right now is good. It was nice coming back and getting it, no matter how we did it.”
The Mariners did it by coming from behind, having watched the Royals flex their muscle with some early long balls off starting pitcher Gil Meche.
Alberto Castillo hit a solo home run and David DeJesus hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning as the Royals took a 4-0 lead on Meche, who pitched well again despite the mistake pitches he threw.
Meche, who had won his previous three starts, held the Royals to six hits in six innings. He also walked two, including his first walk in 18 innings.
“I thought Gil had good stuff all night,” Melvin said. “He just got a couple of balls up and they hit them out of the ballpark.”
The Mariners muffed a big opportunity against Royals starter Zack Greinke when they got three straight hits with nobody out in the first inning but didn’t score, then they tattooed him in the fifth.
With one out, Olivo hit his 12th homer of the season, to left field, followed by Lopez (his second) and Bocachica (his third) to pull the Mariners within a run at 4-3.
One inning later, Olivo muscled up again with another homer to left.
“When he starts tracking the breaking ball a little better, I certainly think he projects to be a 20-plus home run guy,” Melvin said of Olivo.
Scott Atchison pitched a scoreless seventh for the Mariners, but George Sherrill gave up Abraham Nunez’s solo homer in the eighth that put the Royals back ahead 5-4 before Sherrill got out of the inning.
Three batters later, the Mariners took the lead.
Raul Ibanez singled off Royals reliever B.J. Carrasco before Boone, with one out, hit a 2-2 pitch for his 18th home run – and his 64th and 65th runs batted in – and a 6-5 Mariners lead. Spiezo, the next batter, hit his 10th homer for a two-run lead.
It was the second time two teams combined for nine homers at Safeco, the other on July 16 when the Cleveland Indians hit eight and the Mariners one.
J.J. Putz gave up a one-out single but got a game-ending double play to record his fourth save.
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