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Washburn continues road success as Mariners sweep Royals

May 27, 2007 - 11:45 PM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Jarrod Washburn continued to make the most of his starts away from home.

Washburn threw seven-plus strong innings and Jose Vidro drove in two runs as the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 7-4 victory on Sunday.

Ichiro Suzuki singled twice to extend his hitting streak to 20 games and Adrian Beltre homered for the Mariners, who ended up outscoring the Royals, 26-7, in the weekend set.

"I feel real good about our team right now," Washburn said. "Offensively, we've got a lot of guys that are coming around. We knew they would. We expected big things out of them this year and they're showing what they are capable of right now."

"We're swinging the bats pretty well right now," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "We have seemed to turn that around. We're getting good starting pitching, which really helps our bullpen especially going through this stretch. And our bullpen is coming through. It's the best of both worlds right now."

It was a fourth consecutive loss for Kansas City, which has managed just nine runs in their last four games after winning the opening two of a mid-week series against the Cleveland Indians.

"The last four games it sounds like we're talking about the same game," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "Not enough pitching and not enough hitting. It's a bad combination."

The latest pitcher to hold the Royals in check was Washburn (5-4), who threw five scoreless innings before finishing with three runs and four hits allowed.

"I worked fast and was able to get ahead of hitters and use my defense," Washburn said. "I'm not a strikeout guy. The defense played great behind me again."

The veteran lefthander also struck out four and walked one en route to improving to 3-1 with a 2.28 ERA in four starts away from Safeco Field this season.

Washburn issued just a walk through the first three innings until David DeJesus singled with an out in the fourth. The southpaw bounced back to strike out both Mark Grudzielanek and Mark Teahen.

"His ability to sink it made it hard for us," DeJesus said. "As a team, we've faced a lot of good arms and they have been getting ahead of us, then inducing double plays, and that's a killer."

Facing a 6-0 deficit, Kansas City finally got to Washburn in the sixth following a 22-minute rain delay. Ryan Shealy led off with a single, moved to third on a double by Tony Pena Jr. and scored on a wild pitch. Pena later reached home on a groundout by DeJesus.

"It wasn't too long," Washburn said of the rain delay. "I wasn't worried about it. Obviously, I didn't (pitch) after the delay the way like I wanted to, but I was able to calm down after that and helped us get the win."

Shealy continued the Royals' rally in the eighth, following up a leadoff double by rookie Alex Gordon that chased Washburn with a single to make it 6-3.

"Washburn wasn't as effective when he went back out (after the rain delay)," Hargrove said. "He gave up the two runs in the sixth. In the seventh, he shut them down. In the eighth, we wanted him to face Gordon and go batter by batter. He hung a breaking ball to Gordon."

However, Raul Ibanez delivered an RBI single in the ninth and closer J.J. Putz came on to killed a potential rally in the bottom half by fanning two of the three batters he faced, notching his 12th save.

Continuing a hot streak, Vidro opened the scoring in the third inning with a two-run single. He finished with four RBI in the series and five in as many games.

"The last six games, really, all the guys are swinging the bats the best we have the whole season," Vidro said. "We are really locked in. Hitting behind Ichiro, I've got to be ready to hit with runners on base all the time."

Ichiro, who scored on Ibanez's sacrifice fly in the third for a 3-0 edge, hit safely in his 20th consecutive game with an RBI single in the sixth that made it 6-0.

Ichiro, who is on pace for his seventh consecutive 200-hit season, is batting .432 (38-for-88) with 19 runs scored during the streak.

"It's incredible," Vidro said about Ichiro. "I'd seen him play a few times on TV (before joining the Mariners) and now I can appreciate what kind of hitter he is. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a middle infielder when he is batting, to play against him. He can do so many things."

Ibanez, who missed five games earlier in the week with a sore lower back, finished with two RBI. He ended up batting .417 (5-for-12) in the series with four doubles, four RBI and four runs scored.

"Raul is swinging the bat well after missing some games with his back," Hargrove said.

Kansas City starter Odalis Perez (2-5) had a string of strong starts snapped, giving up six runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. The lefthander had allowed just five runs in 19 frames over his previous three outings.

"I would say that team is good enough right now that if you make any mistake you pay for it," Perez said of the Mariners. "Even when you pitch the ball where you want it they can still hit the ball and make you pay."