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Lopez comes through in eighth for Mariners

May 19, 2008 - 1:33 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jose Lopez drove in all three of his team's runs to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.

Lopez gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead with an RBI groundout in the first inning, but Seattle did not score again until Lopez came up big in the eighth.

With the bases loaded, Lopez doubled to right field to score a pair of runs and give the Mariners a 3-2 lead.

"I tried to hit it that way, to right field," Lopez said. "He throws hard and he has a good slider and I got a good pitch to hit. I feel great. I got a line drive, got two RBI's and we take the lead."

J.J. Putz made it stand up in the ninth, striking out two in a perfect frame for his fifth save of the season.

"Hopefully we can build on it and have some carryover on the road," Putz said. "We know we are a good team and we have had some bad luck. We've played some good games that we should have won. I think everybody still believes in this team."

Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to give San Diego a 2-1 lead.

Arthur Rhodes (2-0) gave up a hit and recorded the final out in the eighth inning to pick up the win.

Heath Bell (0-3) allowed two runs and three hits in 1 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.

"He pitched well to Vidro but took one up the middle, threw a good pitch to Betancourt and it goes off the end of the bat, then battled tough with Ichiro," Padres manager Bud Black said. "He punched out Beltre and with Lopez I think he just left it out over the outside of the plate and he snuck it down the line."

Bell's shaky performance out of the bullpen wasted a strong start by Shawn Estes. Making just his second start in two years, Estes allowed a run and two hits in 6 1/3 innings and retired 13 straight Mariners at one point.

"Sometimes the other team is a little bit better than you, but personally I feel good about things," Estes said. "We just couldn't break through with the bats. We had some opportunities to score some more runs and we didn't do it. It was one of those games where obviously on paper we should have won it."

Lopez's first RBI was set up by Ichiro Suzuki. After reaching on an infield single, Suzuki stole second to become Seattle's all-time stolen base leader with 291, passing Julio Cruz. Suzuki then stole third and scored on Lopez's groundout.