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Ibanez, Mariners slam Indians

Jul 19, 2008 - 6:37 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Raul Ibanez hit a grand slam and Jose Lopez added a three-run homer to lead the Seattle Mariners to an 8-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Friday night.

Making his second start since returning from the disabled list, Felix Hernandez (7-6) pitched six effective innings, striking out eight.

After Cleveland starter Aaron Laffey (5-6) walked in a run, Ibanez provided all the offense Seattle needed in the second, crushing a 1-1 offering over the right field wall to extend the advantage to 5-0.

"Felix was throwing good and Ibanez got us off to a nice lead there," Seattle manager Jim Riggleman said. "So it was a little better feeling than most of the games we've had lately."

Ibanez, who is second on the club with 12 blasts, finished with three hits. Lopez put the game out of reach with his sixth homer of the campaign.

"It's really irrelevant," Ibanez said of the trade rumors. "Regardless of the situation, you still prepare the same way and you still take the same approach to the game and the same attitude. So regardless of the circumstances or whatever's going on, you still go out there and compete and do the best you can and try to help your club win."

"I don't really give it any thought. The game's hard enough to play without thinking about possible scenarios or what could happen. And I don't make any of those decisions or control it, so it would be foolish of me to try to think about what's going to happen."

It was more than enough for Hernandez, who allowed two runs, four hits and two walks in his 98-pitch outing.

"He made a little protest about not going back out, but I think he realized that if he went out there and somebody got on, we'd probably have to come and get him," Riggleman said. "It was a nice jump from the 82 pitches he threw in Kansas City to throw close to 100 tonight and the reins will be completely off next time if we didn't have any setbacks today, which I don't think we did."

The 22-year-old righthander, who recorded his first win since June 17, has won five of his last six decisions.

"The fastball was better and my command was better than I expected today because over the four days we didn't do nothing," Hernandez said of his improvement from his first start back from the DL. "My command was better and all my pitches were good."

Jamie Burke collected three hits while Ichiro Suzuki and Adrian Beltre each added two for the Mariners, who belted 13 hits on the night.

Casey Blake blasted a solo home run and drove in a pair of runs for the Indians, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.

Laffey was tagged for eight runs - four earned - and nine hits with two walks and one strikeout in just 3 2/3 innings.

"Errors are going to happen, but as a pitcher you have to learn to deal with it, and then he gave up 4 straight balls to the next guy," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said of his starter. "The thing Aaron's been able to do early in his young career is pitch out of damage - and he wasn't able to do that tonight."