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Mariners complete sweep of Rangers

Sep 30, 2007 - 11:30 PM By Paul Lowenberg PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jamie Burke homered and had two RBI and Jose Lopez also hit a home run to help Felix Hernandez to his fourth consecutive victory as the Seattle Mariners ended their season with a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers, 4-2, on Sunday afternoon.

Hernandez (14-7) gave up two runs - one earned - and allowed just four hits in 8 2/3 innings. Hernandez struck out eight as Seattle won its fifth game in a row and swept the Rangers at home for the first time since June 4-6, 2001. The 21-year-old righthander finished the season, going 8-1 over his last 13 starts.

Mariners manager John McLaren purposely removed Hernandez with two outs in the ninth to allow reliever J.J. Putz the opportunity to record his 40th save.

"What a performance by Felix," McLaren said. "That was probably the toughest decision I had all year, whether to let him get a complete game or let J.J. get his 40th. But when I thought about it, we owed it to J.J. to let him get his 40th."

Hernandez admitted that he wasn't too happy to see McLaren walking toward the mound, but he got over it right away.

"I was a little mad at first," Hernandez said. "But after he told me (about the 40th save) I said 'all right, I'm out.' It's fine. We're teammates."

Putz became only second Mariners closer to record at least 40 saves. Kazuhiro Sasaki set the club record with 45 saves in 2001.

Rangers starter A.J. Murray (1-2) was making just his second big league start but suffered the loss after giving up five hits and four runs - three earned - in six innings.

The Rangers became the first team in American League history to go an entire season without throwing a complete game.

Ian Kinsler was hit by a Hernandez pitch and scored on David Murphy's double as the Rangers took a 1-0 lead in the first.

But the Mariners bounced back to score twice in the second for a 2-1 lead. Reserve catcher Burke, 35, who has played parts of five seasons in the major leagues, finally hit his first big league home run, when he drove a 1-1 offering from Murray into the left field bullpen to tie the score.

"I didn't even think about it," said Burke, who had spent 14 seasons in the minor leagues and only 123 games at the major league level. "The pitch just kind of ran into my bat. I did it and I can't explain it. Obviously to do that on the last day and catch a good game and win, that made it special."

After Willie Bloomquist walked, Ichiro Suzuki beat out an infield hit to first and Bloomquist scored when first baseman Jarrod Saltalamacchia threw wide of first for an error.

Burke laid down a suicide squeeze bunt in the fourth to score Adam Jones, who had tripled, to give Seattle a 3-1 advantage. But the Rangers trimmed the lead to 3-2 on Ramon Vazquez's groundout in the top of the fifth inning, which allowed Saltalamacchia to score from third.

Lopez hit his career-high 11th home run of the season in the sixth inning as the Mariners extended their lead to 4-2.

"King Felix did very well against us and held us to two runs," said Rangers skipper Ron Washington, who posted a 75-87 record as Texas lost 10 of their last 11 road games. "I've seen many, many games on the road where we had a chance to get a victory, we just didn't cash in when the opportunity was there for us to win."