Mariners 7, Yankees 3
Mariners 7, Yankees 3
SEATTLE (AP) — While the Mariners are last in the AL West, Ichiro Suzuki keeps rapping out hits.
Suzuki went 3-for-4, including his second leadoff home run off Kevin Brown, and Seattle rallied to beat New York 7-3 Sunday and stop the Yankees' four-game winning streak.
The 2001 AL MVP is hitting .364 and has 185 hits — both tops in the major leagues — and is on track to reach 200 for the fourth straight season. He has 848 hits, already the most for a player's first four seasons, eight ahead of Paul Waner (1926-29).
”My goal is to get 200 hits every year,” Suzuki said through a translator. ”Not just four years, but every year.”
Seattle scored six runs in the seventh inning to overcome a 3-1 deficit, with Edgar Martinez hitting a go-ahead single and Miguel Olivo getting two hits and two RBIs in the inning.
Olivo singled off Kevin Brown leading off, stole second and took third when catcher John Flaherty's throw went into the outfield for an error.
Jose Lopez followed with an RBI double, Willie Bloomquist struck out, and left-hander C.J. Nitkowski (0-1) relieved and walked Suzuki. Paul Quantrill came in and gave up consecutive singles to Randy Winn and Martinez that put the Mariners ahead 4-3.
”It is frustrating any time you don't get your job done,” Quantrill said.
After Raul Ibanez's single loaded the bases, Scott Proctor came in and forced in a run when he walked Bret Boone on a 3-1 pitch. Olivo followed with a two-run single.
”That's what happens with Paul,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ”He is so good in the strike zone, he throws so many strikes, sometimes it is fat in the zone. It is just that we are spoiled. We get it done all the time. He just didn't do it today.”
Seattle, 3-6 against the Yankees this season, came from behind to win for the 20th time.
Gil Meche (3-5) won his second straight start, giving up three runs — two earned — and seven hits in seven innings. He gave up an RBI single in the fourth to Bernie Williams and a two-run homer in the sixth to Hideki Matsui after Gary Sheffield reached on third baseman Willie Bloomquist's throwing error.
Meche, a 15-game winner last season, pitched so badly at the start of the season that the Mariners sent him to Triple-A Tacoma from June 2-July 29.
”It's been great coming back here and being able to just attack hitters,” he said. ”I kept saying over and over that I wasn't going to pitch so much toward the corners to start off hitters and I wanted to get ahead of them. Keeping my walks down has probably been my biggest key since I've been back.”
Brown made his fourth start since coming off the disabled list on July 30 with a strained lower back and an intestinal parasite. He allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings and struck out six.
Brown was not available for comment after the game.
”I don't know about velocity if it is where he wanted it to be, but I saw life on the fastball, movement on the sinker, movement on the split finger,” catcher John Flaherty said. ”He had all that working today.”
Suzuki homered leading off the first, a 424-foot drive off a window of the Hit It Here Cafe in right field. Suzuki had three hits, including his fifth homer, and two of Seattle's four steals.
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