LeBlanc pitches Mariners to victory
SEATTLE -- Journeyman starter Wade LeBlanc turned in his second solid performance in as many starts and the Seattle Mariners rode home runs from Seth Smith, Kyle Seager and Dae-Ho Lee to a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.
LeBlanc, who threw six shutout innings in his Mariners debut last week, allowed two runs and three hits over six innings Friday. LeBlanc (1-0) earned his first win since Sept. 23, 2014 while with the Los Angeles Angels before spending the 2015 season in Japan.
Lee went 3-for-4 with a single, a double and a two-run homer that opened up a 5-2 lead in the eighth. Lee took Baltimore reliever Chaz Roe deep for a one-out homer that gave the Mariners some insurance runs after Seager's two-run blast in the sixth put Seattle ahead 3-2.
Smith also had three hits, including a first-inning homer that gave Seattle (41-39) a 1-0 lead. Smith has homered in each of the first two games of the series.
Mariners relievers Mike Montgomery, Edwin Diaz and closer Steve Cishek each pitched a scoreless inning while combining to allow two hits. Cishek earned his 20th save of the season -- and second in as many nights.
Baltimore's Kevin Gausman (1-6) allowed three runs and eight hits over six innings as the Orioles lost back-to-back games for the first time since June 20-21. The last time Baltimore (47-32) lost consecutive games to the same team was on June 11-12, when the Toronto Blue Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Orioles.
Baltimore's lead atop the American League East dwindled to four games after the loss and a win by the Boston Red Sox earlier Friday.
The Orioles' Manny Machado went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 10 games.
Solo home runs by Smith and the Orioles' Chris Davis left the score tied 1-1 after two innings.
Smith hit a one-out homer, his second in as many days, in the first to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead. Davis tied the score with a leadoff shot in the top of the second inning. The home run ended LeBlanc's scoreless-inning streak at 24 2/3 innings, which was at the time the longest streak in baseball.
The last time LeBlanc had allowed a run in a major league game before the Davis home run was Sept. 2, 2014. He closed out that season with 17 2/3 scoreless innings as a starter/reliever, spent 2015 pitching in Japan and was in Toronto's minor league system before the Mariners traded for the veteran journeyman last week.
LeBlanc gave up another run in the third inning, when Jonathan Schoop's two-out RBI single gave Baltimore a 2-1 lead.
NOTES: Mariners RHP Felix Hernandez (strained calf) threw a 43-pitch bullpen session Friday afternoon and pronounced afterward that he will be "100 percent" and ready to return to the rotation shortly after the All-Star break. Hernandez has been out since May 28 but is close to being ready for a rehab start or two. His session Friday was Hernandez's second time working in the bullpen this week. Hernandez is scheduled to pitch in a simulated game during the Mariners' upcoming road trip before he begins a rehab assignment. The target date for him to be back in the rotation is around July 20, according to the Seattle Times. ... The Orioles announced that RHP Ubaldo Jimenez will start Sunday. Jimenez has struggled to the tune of a 6.63 ERA this season and there was speculation that he may lose his spot in the rotation, but he'll get at least one more start. ... Baltimore went 19-9 in June, ranking behind only Cleveland (22-6) and Texas (20-8) in the American League last month. Closer Zach Britton converted all nine save opportunities during the month without allowing an earned run. ... The broken hand that sidelined Seattle C Steve Clevenger this week left the Mariners with nine players on the disabled list. Clevenger, who is likely to require season-ending surgery, is one of two catchers on the DL (Jesus Sucre). The other seven injured players are pitchers.