Power Surge Keeps Mariners Surging : Baseball: Buhner homers twice and Johnson strikes out 15 in a 7-0 rout of the Athletics that puts Seattle two games ahead of the Angels.

Things have changed so much in the American League West, the Seattle Mariners now must guard against overconfidence.

“Mathematically, we could do what the Angels did, though I don’t think we will,” Randy Johnson said Saturday night after striking out 15 in Seattle’s 7-0 victory over Oakland before the 10th sellout crowd in team history.

The victory, combined with the Angels’ 5-1 loss at Texas, gave Seattle a two-game lead in the division. Seattle has picked up 13 1/2 games on the slumping Angels over the last 27 days.

“We’re down to seven ballgames, and they’re all important,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “Tomorrow’s game is always the most important one.”

The Athletics were mathematically eliminated from the division race, although they’re still alive in the wild-card competition.

Buhner hit his 36th and 37th home runs, giving him 11 in his last 17 games. It was Buhner’s fourth two-homer game of the season and the 12th of his career.

Johnson (16-2) increased his major league-leading strikeout total to 275. He struck out 10 or more batters for the 15th time this season and the 65th time in his career. Johnson gave up four hits, all singles, and walked three in 7 1/3 innings. Bobby Ayala finished.

“The Big Unit was at his best tonight,” Piniella said. “He was simply overpowering.”

Seattle got to Oakland starter Doug Johns (5-2) early, scoring four runs in the first inning on Edgar Martinez’s run-scoring double and a three-run homer by Buhner.

Buhner added a solo homer in the fourth inning, tying Alvin Davis’ 1984 club record of 116 RBIs.

The Mariners scored two more in the fifth on a run-scoring triple by Alex Rodriguez and a RBI double by Ken Griffey Jr.