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Jose Lopez hits 2-run HR, Mariners beat Padres 4-3

Jun 18, 2009 - 5:54 AM By BERNIE WILSON AP Sports Writer

SAN DIEGO(AP) -- Garrett Olson gave up two home runs and never was in any real danger of losing.

That's because his Seattle Mariners were playing the struggling San Diego Padres, who are having trouble simply scraping together hits, let alone winning interleague games.

Olson and three relievers held San Diego to four hits in a 4-3 win on Wednesday night, extending the Padres' major league-record interleague losing streak to 13. The Padres have lost 10 straight games to the Mariners in San Diego, and 16 of 20 overall against Seattle.

Jose Lopez hit a two-run homer and the decisive run scored on an error.

The Padres' four hits were double what they had on Tuesday night, when they were two-hit by Felix Hernandez in a 5-0 Mariners win.

Still, Olson's two mistakes didn't hurt him.

"I just feel each time I go out there like I can just challenge guys," Olson said. "I felt really good coming out of the bullpen. I primarily just went after them with fastballs, just challenging them and trying to use this ballpark to my advantage."

Olson allowed a leadoff homer by Kevin Kouzmanoff in the second and a two-run shot by Chase Headley that tied the game at 3 in the fourth. Both came on 0-2 counts.

"The first one, trying to go inside, I just left it over the plate," Olson said. "The second one, he saw fastballs inside pretty much the whole at-bat and I tried to go back in there and he did a great job adjusting. In hindsight, maybe going away from him or even going with an off-speed pitch there would have been a good call, but I went after him and he did a great job of making that adjustment."

Olson (2-1) allowed three runs and two hits in six innings, struck out four and walked one. David Aardsma pitched the ninth for his 12th save in 13 chances.

San Diego scored for the first time in 23 innings when Kouzmanoff homered leading off the second, his fifth. The Padres loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth before Kouzmanoff's grounder forced David Eckstein at third.

"We just couldn't muster anything against their pitching," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "We have to get more guys on base to put stress on their pitcher."

The Padres have lost five straight overall and 13 of 17.

Seattle took a 3-1 lead when Ken Griffey Jr. doubled in Russell Branyan with one out in the fourth, followed by Lopez's homer into the first row of the second deck in left-center, his 10th.

"I made a bad pitch to Lopez and he happened to hit it out with a guy on," Padres starter Chad Gaudin said.

San Diego tied it with two outs in the bottom half when Headley hit a long two-run homer into the deck on the fourth floor of the Western Metal Supply Co. brick warehouse in the left-field corner. It was his fifth, and Adrian Gonzalez was aboard on a one-out walk.

The Mariners used small ball and an error to go ahead 4-3 in the fifth.

Franklin Gutierrez drew a leadoff walk, was sacrificed to second by Olson, went to third on Ichiro Suzuki's single and scored on catcher Nick Hundley's errant pickoff attempt. Kouzmanoff couldn't handle the throw to third and the ball rolled into foul territory.

Gaudin (2-6) also went six innings, allowing three earned runs and six hits while striking out eight and walking one.

NOTES: Seattle's Mike Carp made his big league debut in the seventh, drawing a walk while pinch hitting for Olson. Carp was recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Tacoma to take LHP Erik Bedard's spot on the roster. Bedard went on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation, retroactive to June 8. ... Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman attended his first Padres game since joining Jeff Moorad's ownership group, which has acquired 35 percent of the team from John Moores. Aikman sat next to Moorad in the owner's box. The former Dallas Cowboys star is a limited partner in the ownership group, which has up to five years to acquire the remainder of the team. ... Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said he spoke with C Kenji Johjima about a possible rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma from Friday through Monday, during which he would catch and DH. Johjima would then be activated on Tuesday. He's been on the disabled list since May 26 with a broken left big toe.