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GAME LOG
SEATTLE (AP) -- Alex Rodriguez made sure the Seattle Mariners weren't victimized by a rookie pitcher for the second consecutive night.
Seattle jumped on Minnesota starter Mark Redman early as the Mariners pounded out a 7-2 victory over the Twins on Saturday
night.
All-Star shortstop Rodriguez drove in a run in each of his four
plate appearances, finishing 3-for-3 with four RBI.
"We had good pitching, good defense and a big night from
Alex," Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "That's what you want,
the big guys in the lineup to start taking over late in the season
and hopefully they will."
Seattle starter Jamie Moyer (12-9) ended a six-game losing streak, giving up four hits in seven innings as Seattle maintained
its two-game lead over Oakland in the AL West.
"We gotta win games ... that makes all the difference in the
world," Piniella said after his team won for just the eighth time
in the past 26 games. "You can't count on anybody else winning or
losing. You've got to get it done yourselves."
Rodriguez is hitting .460 (19-for-41) with four homers and 16
RBI in 11 games against the Twins this season.
"I've been seeing the ball well lately," he said. "I've been
working on my on-base average and it just so happened that I had a
chance to do some damage."
Rodriguez's double into the left-field corner scored Mike
Cameron from first base in the first inning. Rodriguez came around
to score when Edgar Martinez singled into the same corner.
"He is one of the impact players in the game right now as he
has been for the last few years," Minnesota manager Tom Kelly
said. "He can hurt you. It's not the first time he's got three
hits in a game before. He gets himself in position pretty good."
Torii Hunter responded with a double to right-center to score
Ron Coomer from third and pull the Twins within 2-1 in the top of
the second. Minnesota threatened to add more runs, but Mariners
third baseman David Bell made a leaping grab on a line drive by Jason Maxwell and fired to second to get Hunter for an inning-ending double play.
"It looked like we were going to do something in the second
when we hit that line drive to third that ended up a double play,"
Kelly said. "Then Mr. Moyer took us to task after that and he got
us chasing a lot of bad pitches and pitched his game after that."
John Olerud pushed Seattle's lead to 7-2 with a two-run double
over left-fielder Denny Hocking's head in the seventh.
Redman (12-9) lasted just five innings as he was unable to
duplicate teammate Matt Kinney's strong performance on Friday,
which resulted in his first major league victory. Redman, who also
lost to Seattle on June 15, gave up four earned runs and six hits
before giving way to Hector Carrasco.
Moyer ended a 1½ month drought, avoiding moving within one loss
of his career-high total of eight consecutive losses, which spanned
from April 12, 1991 to May 30, 1993. Moyer's previous win came on
July 24 against Oakland.
"I've learned to take the good with the bad," Moyer said.
"I've been through streaks before and hopefully they don't bunch
up. But they did. You can't go around dragging your chin on the
ground. I'm not going to give up, that's not my style."
Rodriguez belted a solo home run, his 35th of the season, to
lead off the bottom of the third inning for Seattle. Rodriguez hit
Redman's 2-2 pitch into the Seattle bullpen -- 382 feet away -- to
boost the lead to 3-1.
Rodriguez pushed Seattle's lead to 4-1 when he brought home Rickey Henderson from third on a deep sacrifice fly to center field
in the bottom of the fifth.
Game notes
CF Hunter robbed Dan Wilson of a 400-foot-plus homer with a
leaping catch in the second inning. Hunter slammed hard into the
center-field wall to make the grab and took almost five minutes to
regroup before play resumed. ... Out of 70 home games this season,
the Mariners have played 11 with the retractable roof closed at
Safeco Field. The possibility of rain was the reason the roof was
shut Saturday. Seattle is 8-3 with the roof closed. ... Minnesota
lost for the fourth time in six games. ... Henderson bounced a
ground-rule double into the Mariners' bullpen for his 485th career
double, moving him into a tie for 45th on baseball's career list
with Vada Pinson and Harold Baines. ... The Mariners tied a club
record for walks in a season with 670.
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Baseball Scoreboard
Minnesota Clubhouse
Seattle Clubhouse
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NY Yankees 5
Boston 3
Cleveland 9
Chi. White Sox 3
Oakland 10
Tampa Bay 0
Toronto 6
Detroit 5
Baltimore 10
Anaheim 3
Texas 6
Kansas City 5
Seattle 7
Minnesota 2
Colorado 7
Los Angeles 6
Houston 14
Chicago Cubs 4
San Diego 7
San Francisco 3
Arizona 4
Florida 1
Cincinnati 6
Pittsburgh 4
Montreal 7
Atlanta 5
Philadelphia 6
NY Mets 3
St. Louis 7
Milwaukee 6
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