By Todd Milles
The News Tribune
SEATTLE — Seth Smith despises being part of any headline.
No player in the Seattle Mariners’ clubhouse is more soft-spoken than Smith, who came to the club in a 2014 trade for reliever Brandon Maurer.
Home runs? Nah, they are just good hits, the Mississippi native says.
Power-hitting streaks? Just part of baseball, Smith adds.
Smith homered for a career-best fourth consecutive game, and the Mariners belted Baltimore, 9-4, in front of 31,405 at Safeco Field on Sunday afternoon. The win completed a four-game sweep of the AL East-leading Orioles.
The Mariners didn’t hit just home runs over the past four days, although 10 is a pretty big number. They added 13 doubles, and their 23 extra-base hits was one short of the team record in a four-game series, set in 1987 against the California Angels.
“I don’t consider us just a team that is out there trying to slug (homers),” Seattle third baseman Kyle Seager said. “If you look at the at-bats … a lot of doubles, and we got our fair share of walks. It has been a pretty good approach, and it has been pretty professional, from top to bottom.”
But Smith’s first career grand slam was the fuel in another convincing victory over a playoff contender.
After Chris Iannetta walked and Ketel Marte and Leonys Martin followed with back-to-back singles, Smith came up with no outs in the third inning. He fell behind 0-2 to Baltimore right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez (5-8).
“I was just trying to be aggressive in the (strike) zone and realize they can throw whatever at 0-2,” Smith said. “(A good pitch) just showed up, and I was able to get the barrel to it.”
Smith walloped the no-doubt homer deep into the stands in right center for his 10th home run of the season, giving the Mariners a 4-0 lead.
Afterward with reporters, he was jokingly asked if he was making a late bid to get on the American League home run derby squad for the All-Star Game.
The question almost seemed tomake him uncomfortable.
“No,” he said. “I have no interest in that.”
Smith isn’t one to really enjoy talking about himself, even after good performances.
“He should, yeah, that is pretty impressive,” Seager said. “He is great. He always puts together a professional at-bat, but over the course of the season, you get hot and you get going. It has been a lot of fun for us to jump on his back.”
Even after Baltimore cut the difference to 4-3 a half-inning later — started by ex-Mariner Mark Trumbo’s league-leading 24th home run — the Mariners kept at it.
Marte’s double down the right-field line scored Franklin Gutierrez, and Iannetta took third base on Trumbo’s fielding error. Iannetta scored on a balk by Jimenez with two outs in the fourth inning.
Seattle scored three times in the seventh on four consecutive hits — the last three were doubles by Nelson Cruz, Seager (two RBI) and Adam Lind (RBI) off reliever Ariel Miranda to give the Mariners a 9-4 lead.
Those are the kinds of innings on which Seattle manager Scott Servais prefers to hang his hat.
“I don’t want to get caught up in the home runs,” Servais said. “Staying on the ball … those are the kind of at-bats you need to see. They don’t always go out of the park.”
Seattle swept a four-game series for the first time since 2012 when it defeated Kansas City (July 26-29).
The Mariners also went 7-2 in this homestand and now go to Houston and Kansas City for the final seven games before the All-Star break.
“It is a long season,” Servais said. “A lot of people, with the ups and downs of our season, had kind of written us off a little bit. It is OK, there is a lot of ball left to play.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
