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Washburn, Betancourt lead Mariners to rare road win

May 23, 2007 - 6:31 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida -- Jarrod Washburn was shaky early, but he came on when it mattered.

Washburn allowed two first-inning runs before settling down and Yuniesky Betancourt hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning as the Mariners posted a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday.

Washburn (4-4) allowed two runs - one earned - and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings to improve to 10-2 all-time against Tampa Bay. He has beaten the Devil Rays more than any other opponent and improved to 5-1 with a 1.99 ERA at Tropicana Field.

"I knew I had my work cut out for me, I didn't have my good stuff early," Washburn said. "It's good when the breaks go your way, sometimes you need them. My off-speed wasn't really good tonight, but I kept showing it just to keep them off balance."

The Devil Rays were a welcome sight to Washburn, who allowed a season-high six runs and nine hits in six innings against his former team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Thursday.

"Jarrod threw a lot of pitches in the first and then settled down and did a good job," Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said.

Rookie Brandon Morrow pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings and has not allowed a run in his last 15 innings. J. J. Putz worked a scoreless ninth to remain a perfect 11-for-11 in save opportunities.

Meanwhile, Betancourt ensured Washburn would have a chance to win it when he hit a one-out, solo home run - his fourth of the season - to left field off reliever Chad Orvella (0-1) in the sixth that provided a 3-2 lead.

The win provided some momentum for the Mariners, who are just 7-11 on the road and are in the midst of a grueling stretch in which they will play 20 games in 20 days.

The Mariners are forced to play the difficult schedule because they played a makeup game on their off day against Cleveland on Sunday. The teams had a four-game series postponed due to an April snow storm in Cleveland.

Jose Vidro added an RBI double to right-center that scored Ichiro Suzuki for a 4-2 lead in the seventh, and Kenji Johjima hit his sixth home run - a solo shot in the eighth - for the Mariners, who won for just the second time in their last seven games.

Carl Crawford had two hits and an RBI and rookie Elijah Dukes had two triples for the Devil Rays, who have dropped four straight after winning a season-high four in a row.

"We started out nicely, then Washburn settled down," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "We couldn't get anything across. We need to do better offensively absolutely."

Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir limited Seattle to one hit through four innings, but let a 2-0 lead slip away in the fifth.

Kazmir nearly escaped a one-out bases load jam, but Richie Sexson, who had been in a 2-for-22 slump, came through with a clutch two-out hit.

After Kazmir struck out Adrian Beltre, Sexson pulled a 3-2 fastball down the third base line for a two-run single that tied the game at 2-2.

"We needed a lift," Sexson said. "We have been struggling the last week or so with runners in scoring position. We needed to get on the board there. I got a fastball down and hit it in the hole. My first thought when I hit it was, 'Who's catching that?'"

Manager Mike Hargrove spoke of Sexson's timely hit.

"I think Sexson's hit changes everything," Hargrove said. "Richie picked us up big time. It's his job to come up with the big hits." Kazmir, who threw 109 pitches in just four innings in his last start vs. Texas, left after five innings. He allowed two runs and four hits with three walks and four strikeouts on 96 pitches.

"I fell behind a couple of hitters and just had to battle throughout the whole game," Kazmir said. "My arm felt good, felt live, but the fifth inning, I fell behind a lot of hitters, walked a couple of guys. I had to throw three straight strikes to Sexson. It's tough to put yourself in that position."

Kazmir has not been happy with his past two outing, but vows to fix the problem.

"It's very frustrating. We're going to keep working at it. It's just some minor detail in my mechanics and we'll just move forward with it."