Mariners 11, Padres 4
SEATTLE -- Thanks to a big first inning and a season-high six home runs, the Seattle Mariners rode to their fourth consecutive win, beating the San Diego Padres 11-4 Tuesday night.
Seattle returned from an off day to extend its longest winning streak of the season in convincing fashion. The seven-run victory was the Mariners' largest of the season, while the six home runs matched the most Seattle ever hit in a game played at Safeco Field.
Catcher Mike Zunino homered twice, while third baseman Kyle Seager, first baseman Logan Morrison, center fielder Justin Ruggiano and right fielder Nelson Cruz also homered during the Mariners' most productive offensive night of the season. The last time Seattle hit six home runs in a home game was in August 2004.
San Diego fell behind 4-0 in the first inning and 7-0 after six innings before first baseman Yangervis Solarte drove in a pair of runs in the three-run seventh.
Seattle responded with three runs of its own in the bottom of the seventh, all of them coming on back-to-back homers from Zunino and Ruggiano.
Zunino had a season-high three hits and turned in the first multiple-homer game of his three-year career.
The Mariners (15-17) piled up 15 hits, with each of Seattle's nine starting position players collecting at least one. San Diego had just six hits and left 11 runners on base.
Seattle starter James Paxton (1-2) overcame some early wildness to pitch six shutout innings. Paxton allowed just three hits but walked five batters, struck out five and needed 109 pitches to get through the six innings.
Right-hander Ian Kennedy (2-2) gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings, and relievers Shawn Kelley and Frank Garces also struggled for San Diego (17-17).
Seattle's first six batters of the game reached base as the Mariners jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Seager's three-run homer did the most damage as Seattle pounded Kennedy for four hits and two walks before the Padres got the second out of the frame. The first out came when leadoff hitter Seth Smith tried to stretch a single into a double.
Kennedy eventually settled down before Morrison hit a solo home run with two outs in the third inning to put Seattle ahead 5-0.
NOTES: Padres 1B Wil Myers (sore left wrist) was a late scratch. Yangervis Solarte moved into the first base position, while Cory Spangenberg entered the lineup as DH. ... Mariners RHP Hisashi Iwakuma is eligible to come of the 15-day disabled list but isn't close to being ready. Manager Lloyd McClendon said Tuesday afternoon that Iwakuma's rehab from a strained latimus dorsi muscle "has not gone as well as we thought it would." Iwakuma felt tightness in the muscle during a throwing session and could be at least two weeks away from returning to the Mariners' rotation. ... Seattle changed its rotation for this week, moving LHP Roenis Elias back a day so that he won't have to face the Padres' right-hand-heavy lineup Wednesday. Elias will now pitch Thursday's game against Boston, while RHP Taijuan Walker is slated to pitch Wednesday. ... Mariners SS Chris Taylor (hand) was back in the lineup.