Mariners slug five homers to beat Orioles
SEATTLE -- The Seattle Mariners belted five home runs to beat Baltimore Orioles for the third consecutive night, 12-6 on Saturday.
Mike Zunino, playing in his first game of the season, homered twice, while teammates Nelson Cruz, Seth Smith and Adam Lind also went deep for Seattle (42-39). Home runs by Zunino, Cruz and Smith opened up an 8-1 Seattle lead over the first four innings.
Baltimore (47-33) lost its third game in a row despite 12 hits, one short of the Orioles' cumulative total in the first two games of the series. First baseman Chris Davis hit his 21st home run of the season and drove in three runs.
The Orioles have lost three in a row for the first time since Toronto beat Baltimore from June 10 through 12.
Seattle had 16 hits, one shy of its season high, with Lind getting four of them on a single, two doubles and a solo homer. Smith went 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
Mariners starter James Paxton (2-3) earned the win despite a shaky outing that saw him give up four runs -- three earned -- on nine hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Seattle did most of its damage against Baltimore starter Tyler Wilson, who allowed eight runs off nine hits over three innings. Wilson (4-6) gave up a career-high three homers and left the game with the Orioles trailing 8-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
Every member of the Mariners' lineup scored or drove in a run, led by Smith's four RBIs. Zunino drove in three runs with his two homers.
Baltimore mounted a rally by scoring six runs off 10 hits in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but the early deficit proved too large to overcome.
The Orioles had the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth, but Adam Jones popped out to end the threat.
Seattle came back in the bottom of the sixth and scored three more runs, two of them coming on back-to-back homers from Lind and Zunino.
The Mariners used home runs from Nelson Cruz and Zunino -- in his first at-bat of the season -- to jump out to a 5-0 lead before Wilson got his first out in the second.
Smith added a three-run homer, marking the first time in his career that he has hit home runs in three consecutive games, to give Seattle an 8-1 lead in the fourth inning.
Cruz crushed the first pitch he saw from Wilson for a 459-foot homer that hit the facade of the upper deck in left field, resulting in a three-run homer. Cruz's 21st home run of the season gave Seattle a 3-0 lead with one out in the first.
After Lind led off the second with a double to left, Zunino hit a 1-2 pitch to the same part of the field but cleared the wall for his first major league home run since Aug. 15, 2015.
The Orioles got one run back on a Chris Davis RBI single in the fourth, cutting the Mariners' lead to 8-1.
Smith's ninth home run of the season, and his third of the series, opened an 8-0 lead in the fourth while chasing Wilson from the game. He allowed eight runs and nine hits in three innings, giving up a season-high three homers in the process.
NOTES: Orioles 1B Chris Davis went i After the Orioles scored an unearned run in the top of the fifth, Smith drove in his fourth run of the game with a two-out RBI single that gave Seattle a 9-2 lead in the bottom of the inning. He had three of Seattle's 11 hits in the first five innings.
nto Saturday's game with 181 career home runs, one behind Ken Singleton for eighth in team history. ... Seattle C Mike Zunino made his season debut. Zunino, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 draft, spent the second half of 2015 and the first three months of this season in Triple-A before an injury to backup catcher Steve Clevenger opened the door for a return to the Mariners. ... Seattle's bullpen was limited Saturday night, as two of the most productive relievers on the team were being given the night off. Rookie Edwin Diaz and closer Steve Cishek both worked in back-to-back games and weren't likely to be available. ... The four-game series wraps up Sunday. Seattle will begin a seven-game road trip with a Monday game in Houston. The Orioles will spent the holiday in Los Angeles, where they will begin a three-game interleague series against the Dodgers. ... Saturday marked the halfway point of the Mariners' season. The Orioles will play Game No. 81 on Sunday.