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Gibbons powers Orioles past Mariners

Jul 18, 2007 - 6:11 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jay Gibbons helped Jeremy Guthrie pick up his first win in almost a month.

Gibbons drove in five runs and Nick Markakis had four hits to lift the Baltimore Orioles to an 8-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.

Guthrie (5-3) pitched six strong innings as the Orioles won for the fourth time in their last five contests.

Gibbons sent a 2-0 offering off Seattle starter Felix Hernandez (6-5) over the right field wall to give Baltimore a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning. Markakis doubled and Aubrey Huff drew a walk to set the stage for Gibbons' blast, his sixth of the season.

"Every time you hit a home run, you're happy," said Gibbons, who is hitting just .217. "I haven't done anything to help the team this year. The guy (Hernandez) is a real good pitcher. He's as nasty as they come. I'm just glad we were able to come back on him."

Gibbons blooped a single into center field to plate Corey Patterson and Markakis, highlighting a five-run seventh inning to give the Orioles an 8-2 advantage.

Markakis, who recorded his first four-hit game since May 11, now has eight multi-hit performances in his last 13 contests. He is batting .434 with nine runs scored and 13 RBI over that span.

"I'm just absolutely locked in right now," Markakis said. "I am really, really seeing the ball great. I'm just on a lot of pitches right now."

Guthrie, who won for the first time since June 20, yielded two runs and six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

"I give Guthrie a lot of credit," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "He hung in there. He had to make some extra pitches early in the game because we made some misplays behind him."

The Mariners started the scoring in the third inning when Jose Vidro singled to drive in Ichiro Suzuki, who reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and moved to third on catcher Ramon Hernandez's throwing error.

Kenji Johjima's 10th home run of the season in the fourth gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead.

Hernandez, who was 3-0 over his five previous starts, gave up three runs on eight hits and three walks over six innings to suffer his first loss since June 15.

"Felix really worked hard," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "He had close to a hundred pitches and he really got frustrated after the home run. I thought he had enough and I've got such confidence in our bullpen. It just didn't happen tonight."

"Those guys were jumping a lot on the first pitch," Hernandez said. "They got a lot of hits and lot of runners in scoring position. I did my best, but I just made one mistake. It's all my fault."