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Ibanez, Washburn help Mariners beat Reds

Jun 24, 2007 - 6:26 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Raul Ibanez gave Seattle Mariners fans something to cheer about besides the return of Ken Griffey Jr. However, he did not hang around to give an encore.

Ibanez hit a first-inning grand slam and drove in five runs, and Jarrod Washburn threw eight solid innings as the Seattle Mariners posted a 9-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.

Ibanez blasted an 0-2 offering from Kyle Lohse (3-10) to right field after the first three batters reached base, but later left the game in the fifth inning when he experienced tightness in his right hamstring.

"That was just trying to stay alive, put it in play at that point," Ibanez said. "I was hoping that it stayed fair."

As for his injury, he said it does not seem too severe.

"It's tight, but it's not real bad," Ibanez said. "The doctor says it's not real bad, so I think we'll take tomorrow off and then we'll see."

Richie Sexson hit two home runs and Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to a major league-leading 18 games with a first-inning single for the Mariners.

Griffey, who played the first 10 years of his career in Seattle, returned for the first time since being traded to Cincinnati in 1999 on Friday. Fans showered him with cheers during every at-bat, but that was the only thing they had to be jubilant about as the Reds pounded their Mariners 16-1.

Griffey, who received an ovation before every plate appearance on Saturday, had one hit in four at-bats and is 2-for-9 with four strikeouts in the first two games of the series.

Ibanez helped the Mariners put Friday's debacle behind them and Washburn (6-6) snapped a personal two-game losing streak by limiting the Reds to one run and seven hits. He had five strikeouts with three walks in eight innings.

"Washburn, he pitched good," Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips said. "He was just hitting his spots and we just couldn't square him up. He pitched real good. Today was his day."

Washburn threw 64 of 107 pitches for strikes and was relieved by rookie Brandon Morrow, who threw a scoreless ninth.

The lefthander had been 0-2 in his last four starts, yielding at least five runs in all but one. One of Washburn's only mistakes came in the eighth, when he allowed a two-out solo homer to Phillips.

"I was waiting for him to throw that pitch cause I couldn't hit that cutter he was throwing," Phillips said of his 14th home run on the year. "He left me one pitch and I ended (up) getting one hit."

Sexson hit his 13th and 14th homers of the season for the Mariners, who have won three of four following a season-high six game skid. It was the 26th career multi-home run game for the righthanded slugger.

Sexson, who entered the game with a .204 batting average and had been dropped to seventh in the batting order said he finally feels like his stroke is starting to come around.

"I'm kind of heating up with the weather," Sexson said. "Typically, I do get off to slow starts - I hate it - but it just seems to be the way it goes. But, I feel great right now."

Ben Broussard hit a two-run homer in the sixth - his fourth of the season - that made the score 8-0.

Lohse lost his third straight start, allowing eight runs and eight hits in six innings.

"It's frustrating when you have the results like you're having out there," Lohse said. "Tonight I wasn't getting ahead of guys and challenging until I fell behind in the count. Any time you do that, you're probably going to get bad results."