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Rookie Clement blasts Mariners past Tigers

Jul 6, 2008 - 6:07 AM By Paul Lowenberg PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Rookie Jeff Clement hit a pair of home runs and drove in three runs to rally the Seattle Mariners to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

With the Mariners trailing, 2-1, in the eighth, Clement drove a 1-1 offering from reliever Fernando Rodney (0-2) into the right field seats for his fourth homer of the year to give Seattle its 3-2 lead. Richie Sexson also scored on the homer after drawing his third walk of the game.

Clement had homered in his previous at-bat off starter Armando Galarraga to cut Detroit's lead to 2-1 in the sixth.

"It was just a heck of a night for a lot of guys," said Mariners manager Jim Riggleman, whose team is now 10-5 since he took over as manager. "Raul (Ibanez) threw a guy out at home, great pitching, Clement calls a good game, hits a couple of homers, drives in runs. Win, lose or draw, I felt it was a great ballgame against a great ballclub."

Clement, the Mariners first round selection in the 2005 draft, had been struggling all season, some of which had been spent at AAA Tacoma. Clement had appeared in 27 games before Tuesday's contest and was hitting just .170, while striking out 34 times.

"Any time you can help your team win a game it feels great, and I haven't been doing that offensively much," Clement said. "It felt really good to be able to do that tonight. I felt a lot better tonight."

Riggleman said his patience with Clement may be beginning to pay off.

"He's a good hitter and his history tells you he has hit the ball out of the ballpark everywhere he has played," Riggleman said. "You figure eventually he's going to hit some out of the ballpark here. He certainly has the power and the bat speed to hit the ball out of the ballpark."

The rally made a winner out of reliever Miguel Batista (4-10), who pitched two innings before Brandon Morrow worked the ninth inning for his seventh save.

Morrow retired the side in order and ran his scoreless streak to 16 2/3 consecutive innings, the second longest active streak in the major leagues.

Galarraga went the first six innings and left with a 2-1 lead, giving up five hits, walking three and striking out two.

Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey started for the Mariners and held the Tigers to just four hits through six innings before departing. The righthander walked five, matching a career high, and struck out three.

Dickey, who has allowed just four runs in his last three starts, said his knuckleball was not working as well as he would have liked.

"There's a rhythm to the game and when you are outside of that rhythm, you have to fight to get back inside it," Dickey said. "Tonight, I did a lot of fighting to get back in it. It was just a hard fought game for me, but I was able to use some other stuff effectively."

Dickey allowed just two hits through the first four innings, but the first was Carlos Guillen's solo blast in the first and the other was Miguel Cabrera's 13th home run of the year, which gave Detroit a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

"We just didn't hit the ball tonight, it's that simple," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "You don't hit the ball, you don't win games. We just need to come out better and start hitting the ball."

Seattle threatened throughout the first five innings, stranding eight runners, but was unable to score until Clement broke an 0-for-11 slump with his first blast of the night.

The Tigers were denied a run in the fifth when a great throw from leftfielder Ibanez to Clement cut down Dane Sardinah trying to score from second on a single. After a walk to Guillen loaded the bases, Dickey got Cabrera to fly out to the warning track in right.