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Sosa blasts No. 605 as Rangers down Mariners

Aug 27, 2007 - 4:16 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Sammy Sosa homered and Vicente Padilla pitched six-plus effective innings as the Texas Rangers posted a 5-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday in the finale of a four-game series.

Marlon Byrd had two RBI sacrifice flies for the Rangers, who have won four of their last six contests.

The Rangers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning off Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn (9-11).

After giving up a leadoff single to Ian Kinsler, Sammy Sosa hammered a two-run shot over the left field wall - his 17th of the season and No. 605 in his career - to give the Rangers a 2-0 advantage.

"I got a pretty good shot on that one," Sosa said. "It felt good to get a chance to contribute to a win against a team playing for first place."

It was Sosa's first blast since July 27.

"He understands the situation we are in," Rangers manager Ron Washington said of Sosa. "He also understands when he gets the chance to play, he's going to do the best he can do. He's not bitter at anyone."

Padilla (4-9) cruised through the first six innings, allowing just two hits. After Ichiro Suzuki led off the game with an infield single, Padilla retired the next 13 batters until Ben Broussard singled in the fifth frame.

The Nicaraguan righthander ran into some trouble in the seventh. The Mariners broke up Padilla's shutout bid and ultimately chased him from the game by opening the inning with three consecutive singles by Jose Guillen, Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre, cutting the Rangers' advantage to 3-1.

Guillen and Beltre each extended their current hitting streaks to 10 games with the hits, and Padilla left to a rousing ovation with the tying run on base.

The win was the first for Padilla in three starts since coming off of the disabled list on August 15 with irritation in his right triceps. The outing was Padilla's longest since May 11 and marked his first win since June 15.

"He was commanding everything," Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who caught Padilla for the first time in his career. "He was throwing 92-94 miles per hour with command and then he threw one of his six curveballs that he has."

Frank Francisco was perfect in relief to shut down Seattle's rally in the seventh, retiring the next three hitters and stranding two Mariners on base in the process.

Joaquin Benoit allowed just a hit in the eighth and extended his streak of scoreless innings to 13 1/3. Benoit has not allowed a run in 11 appearances during the month of August.

Rangers closer C.J. Wilson entered in the ninth and gave up two runs in a non-save situation.

After the first inning, Washburn settled down over the next four frames, allowing no runs on only one hit. He lasted six innings, yielding three runs and six hits with five strikeouts.

"Washburn did a pretty good job keeping us in it, but he made a mistake to Sosa and it cost us," Seattle manager John McLaren said. "This is a tough place to win because of the heat. We split and now we're done here."

Seattle (73-55) still holds a two-game advantage over the New York Yankees (72-58) in the wild card race but has fallen two games back of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League West.

The Mariners are set to face the Angels on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.

"Now we're going home and we're ready for the Angels," McLaren said. "It was a 4-3 road trip and we're disappointed. We were thinking 5-2. But we're ready to take on the Angels."

The Rangers added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Seattle reliever Sean Green gave up a leadoff single to Kinsler and an RBI triple by Brad Wilkerson down the right field line. Wilkerson scored on Byrd's second sacrifice fly of the night to make it 5-1.