• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Royals hit four home runs in 8-4 win over Mariners

Aug 28, 2009 - 6:14 AM SEATTLE(AP) -- Yuniesky Betancourt's homer Thursday night was special. After all, it came against the Mariners.

Betancourt hit one of the Royals' four home runs in his return to Seattle after a July 10 trade, and Kansas City powered past the Mariners 8-4.

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's different," Betancourt said through his teammate Brayan Pena, who was translating. "It's a lot of emotions going on. But I understand it's my job. I have to go out there and compete and do my best."

Pena, Alberto Callaspo and David DeJesus also homered for the Royals in their first four-homer game this season. The last time they hit four was May 23, 2007, against Cleveland.

It was enough support for Kyle Davies (5-9), who went six innings to earn the victory. He allowed five hits and two runs, walking three and striking out five.

Jamey Wright allowed one hit over his two innings. And Bruce Chen gave up a two-run home run to Jack Wilson in the ninth. It was Wilson's first with the Mariners and first the American League.

Doug Fister (1-1) worked six innings for the Mariners, allowing five runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out five.

"I believe I still have some fans here in Seattle," Betancourt said. "It's an amazing feeling."

Pena's home run, his fifth, was one of the shortest ever at 10-year-old Safeco Field, just 331 feet. Callaspo drew a one-out walk and Mark Teahan forced him at second. But Teahan hustled to avoid the double play and kept the inning alive for Pena. His ball barely cleared the right-field wall at the foul pole, the park's shortest point.

"That's why I always run hard, because you never know what's going to happen. I got lucky and was very excited about it," said Pena, who nearly caught Teahan during his home-run sprint. "He's a big boy. It's hard to miss him. The guys were giving me a hard time about my running but that's the way I play. I like to respect the game."

Davies said when a pitcher gets an early lead, as Pena provided, "it makes you calm down. When your team hits the long ball, everyone gets up, claps hands and kind of gives us a little momentum, a little pep.

"Then right after the two-run homer, Yuni makes a great play in the hole on the first guy in the next inning," Davies said.

Betancourt, whose fifth-inning shot was his third as a Royal, fifth overall, made a deep throws from shortstop in both the second and third innings to deny runners.

Callaspo connected on a two-run shot, his eighth, in the sixth to make it 5-2. DeJesus pushed the lead to 7-2 with his seventh-inning, two-run, two-out blast, his 11th.

The first three home runs came off Fister. Shawn Kelley allowed DeJesus's homer.

"You see spurts where he's throwing pretty darn good," Mariners' manager Don Wakamatsu said of Fister, who was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma on Aug. 8. "He has shown that he can get awfully good hitters out when he's right. But he's shown also on clubs not quite as good as the Yankees, that they can hurt you just as well as anybody else."

The Mariners scored twice in the fifth. Russell Branyan singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. He scored on Kenji Johjima's single to right.

Michael Saunders' forced Johjima at second. Saunders stole second during Franklin Gutierrez's 10-pitch at-bat and scored on Gutierrez's single to left.

Wilson's ninth-inning home run extended the Mariners' streak to 11 straight games with at least one. That's the longest since 12 straight July 13-25, 2002.

"I wish that it had come through in a game that meant something," said Wilson, who came over to Seattle in a July 29 trade with Pittsburgh. "I'm going through a little rough time right now so it's good to square up the ball and have a good at-bat more than anything."

NOTES: Mariners RF Ichiro Suzuki, 16 hits shy of his record ninth consecutive 200-hit season, missed his fourth straight game with tightness in his left calf. "Still no time frame on his return," manager Don Wakamatsu said. ... 3B Adrian Beltre is scheduled to come off the DL (contused right testicle) Friday but Wakamatsu said he's not ready to return. ... Royals OF Jose Guillen could come off the DL (right knee sprain) by Monday but manager Trey Hillman said, "we don't have a target date yet. We'll see how he progresses."