• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Batista, Mariners push win streak to seven

Jul 1, 2007 - 6:55 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Not even Roy Halladay can hold down the Seattle Mariners these days.

Miguel Batista outpitched his former teammate with seven strong innings to lead the Mariners to a 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

Yuniesky Betancourt and Adrian Beltre each drove in a run to snap a 1-1 tie in the decisive sixth inning for Seattle, which extended its winning streak to seven games. The Mariners have won nine of 10 since a six-game losing streak from June 13-19.

"The (pitch) to Beltre I thought was a decent pitch, but the one after that to Betancourt was probably the one that I'd like to have back," Halladay said after the loss.

Batista (8-6) threw just 61 of 116 pitches for strikes in 6 1/3 innings - walking five - but got groundouts to end each of the first five innings. He allowed five hits and struck out two while holding the Blue Jays to a single run.

"I've been throwing the ball good for the last two months," Batista said. "It's kind of hard when you have to pitch defensively because you're not scoring, but as soon as they got me out, they started swinging, that's a good sign."

"I thought we worked Batista good, he just didn't buckle," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He got some key outs."

The 36-year-old righthander, who pitched for Toronto in 2004 and 2005, has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his last five starts.

Halladay (9-3) was not in top form, yielding 10 hits and three runs in six innings. The Blue Jays' ace worked in-and-out of trouble in each inning, allowing a run in the fifth before the breakout sixth.

"Overall, I felt good. I felt like I was putting the ball where I had to and getting outs where I had to," Halladay said. "More than anything, that sixth inning (hurt me), those two back-to- back hits."

The loss marked the first for Halladay since May 10 against the Boston Red Sox.

"Today was a bad night for (Halladay), but his bad night is anybody in the league's good night," Batista said. "Roy's an amazing pitcher. For the guys to score three runs on him, that's a good night."

After Jose Vidro snapped a scoreless tie with a sacrifice fly in the fifth, Toronto responded in kind in the top of the sixth when Frank Thomas forged another tie with a sacrifice fly of his own.

Ben Broussard, who tied his career high with four hits in the game, got things started in the Mariners' half of the sixth with a one-out single. He moved to second on Kenji Johjima's groundout to third and crossed the plate one batter later on Beltre's single up the middle.

"Today was one of those days, with Halladay pitching, we knew it was going to be a battle and we just had to scrap some runs across," Broussard said. "It was just like that until the seventh (inning), (we) found some holes, got some lucky breaks and we were able to get ahead of him."

Beltre moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on Betancourt's single to push the advantage to 3-1.

Seattle blew the game wide open in the seventh with five runs off relievers Jason Frasor and Brian Tallet. Frasor allowed three runs without recording an out.

Broussard drove in a pair with a single in the frame and Richie Sexson, Willie Bloomquist and Betancourt each plated a run.

The Blue Jays have now lost three straight.