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Beltre homers twice as Mariners top Rangers

Jul 29, 2008 - 5:00 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Adrian Beltre homered twice and drove in four runs as the Seattle Mariners edged the Texas Rangers, 7-5, on Monday.

Rookie Bryan LaHair hit his first career home run and Raul Ibanez added a solo shot for the Mariners, who have the worst mark in the American League (40-65).

Beltre's three-run shot in the first inning off Rangers starter Scott Feldman gave Seattle an early 3-0 lead. He then snapped a 5-5 tie in the eighth with a solo shot to center field off reliever Frank Francisco (2-3). It was Beltre's second multi-home run game of the season and the 18th of his career.

"To start the game with the big fly ball and then to have Felix (Hernandez) on the mound, you expect it to be a good game," Beltre said. "They fought back and it was good to put good contact on the second one and put us back in the lead."

Beltre was also in the middle of the biggest play of the game on the defensive side when major league RBI leader Josh Hamilton came to the plate with the tying and go-ahead runs on base and just one out in the eighth.

When Ramon Vazquez wandered too far off third base, Beltre took a throw from catcher Kenji Johjima and blocked Vazquez from sliding back into third for the second out. Arthur Rhodes then struck out Hamilton to preserve the lead.

"I didn't go too far," Vazquez said. "I would have been safe by a mile if he hadn't blocked my slide, but (third baseman Adrian Beltre's) foot blocked my slide. He made a good play. They really didn't want to pitch, with (Hamilton) up, so they tried to make something happen, and they got me."

"You can't wander and you can't think," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "We made a mistake there and it cost us."

Seattle star Ichiro Suzuki entered Monday's contest needing just two hits to reach the 3,000-hit plateau in his career both in Japan and the United States. Suzuki went hitless in his first three at-bats and then hammered a triple in the seventh inning.

The speedy right fielder closed the night with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly that plated Willie Bloomquist for the final margin.

"It's a big goal. To get there, it will only be natural for me to relax," Suzuki said. "Everyday the media comes and bothers me. I'm looking forward to that disappearing after I get the hit."

Hernandez allowed four runs - three earned - and six hits in six innings. The 22-year-old righthander left with a 5-4 lead after Ibanez led off the sixth with a blast to right-center. However, the Rangers jumped on reliever Cesar Jimenez in the seventh with three consecutive singles before David Murphy tied the score at 5-5 with a single to right.

"I know he (Hernandez) is disappointed," Seattle interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "We probably should have scored more runs early on, but even though we didn't we still gave him runs and he walked the leadoff hitter a few times. He's too good for that. His stuff is electric and most people couldn't get out of that kind of trouble."

Jimenez lasted only two-thirds of the inning before giving way to Sean Green (3-3), who got the final out of the frame to pick up the win. Brandon Morrow worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to record his 10th save in 12 chances and help the Mariners to just their seventh win in the last 20 games.

"The guys battled," Riggleman said. "There were big hits and we pitched out of trouble. There was a lot of good stuff out there."

Texas responded to Beltre's first-inning blast by reaching Hernandez for a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame. Ian Kinsler led off the frame with a double and scored on a single by Michael Young. Murphy added a sacrifice fly in the frame.

LaHair's first career home run in the second gave Seattle a 4-2 lead, but Milton Bradley's RBI groundout in the third made it a one-run game, and Kinsler tied it at 4-4 with an RBI double in the fourth.

The Rangers lost more than a game, though, as Young left in the third inning with a fractured right ring finger. The All-Star shortstop is expected to be out five to seven days. Young suffered the injury in the first inning while diving back to first base on a pickoff attempt.

"Darn right it hurts," Washington said of losing Young.