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Huff helps Orioles snap skid, top Mariners

Jun 7, 2007 - 1:12 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Aubrey Huff did his best to make sure the Baltimore Orioles' losing ways came to an end.

Huff had run-scoring doubles in both the five-run fifth inning and three-run ninth as Baltimore snapped a six-game slide with a 9-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday.

Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera (5-6) labored through the first two innings, allowing four runs, but settled down to pitch eight strong innings. Cabrera, who is now 5-0 in his career against the Mariners, allowed seven hits, struck out six and walked four.

"He (Cabrera) really pitched well for us today," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "After their three-run inning, I told him that the team needed him and we needed him to go deep in the ballgame, and he did it."

Chris Ray surrendered one run but recorded the final three outs for the Orioles, who squandered late-inning leads in both of the previous games in the series.

It didn't look like the Orioles would need Ray after the Mariners got on the board first, courtesy of Raul Ibanez's RBI double in the first inning. Seattle upped its lead to 4-0 after RBI singles from Jamie Burke and Jose Lopez and a run-scoring fielder's choice.

Yuniesky Betancourt extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a single in the second inning for the Mariners, who were trying to complete their first three-game sweep of the Orioles since Aug. 31, 2003.

Baltimore responded in the fifth by belting three doubles and batting around in the five-run fifth to chase Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn.

Jay Payton plated a pair of runs with his double and, after Chris Gomez's RBI single, Miguel Tejada and Huff each had RBI doubles to give the Orioles a 5-4 lead.

Huff said that after the Orioles had blown leads in their last three losses, maybe a little reverse psychology was in order.

"You get to a point where you kind of hit rock bottom, and you figure that maybe if you are going to win some games, maybe starting out down will help us," Huff said. "I think getting all those hits in a row got everybody's confidence rolling a little bit.

"After (Cabrera) gave up those four runs early I thought, 'Gee, here we go.' But he really bore down and give us some solid innings and really helped out our bullpen. I think if they had come back again we would all have just hung up our spikes."

Washburn (5-5), who had sixth straight wins against the Orioles and had not lost to them since 1999, surrendered all five runs on nine hits in 4 2/3 innings.

"He didn't feel real good before he started the game. He had some flu symptoms," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "His ball was moving all over the place today and he was having trouble keeping it in the strike zone. It was just one of those days."

Washburn refused to blame his troubles on the flu.

"I was a little tired, but that's no excuse," Washburn said. "I was still out there, we had the lead and it is my job to keep it."

After Nick Markakis' run-scoring single, Baltimore salted the game away with RBI doubles by Melvin Mora and Huff.