Mariners Like Their Future in New York

Sure, there are two months left in the season, but when you’re in first place and not accustomed to being there, musing on a hot August Sunday beats complaining about baseball’s dog days.

A three-run homer by Edgar Martinez and Stan Javier’s five hits led Seattle to an 11-1 victory at New York and prompted a lot of musing in the Mariner clubhouse.

After all, Seattle could be back to play the Yankees in October.

“It tells us we can come into hostile environments and play good baseball,” said Alex Rodriguez, whose team had lost 10 of 12 in Yankee Stadium before winning the last two games. “Down the road that is very important.”

The Mariners, who lead Oakland by three games in the AL West, combined for 16 hits and eight walks and scored in six of nine innings in a potential playoff preview.

“It’s a confidence booster for our team to play a good team on the road and win,” Manager Lou Piniella said.

Paul Abbott (7-4) gave up one run and seven hits in eight innings to beat the Yankees for the first time. He had been 0-2 with a 10.38 earned-run average in five appearances against New York.

“I’ve always struggled here,” Abbott said. “I got my nerves toned down and pitched well against these guys. There’s so much electricity here and the crowd gets so into it.”

The Yankee victim was starter Orlando Hernandez (8-8), who had been out since July 14 because of discomfort in his right elbow and minor back spasms. Hernandez, pronounced physically sound after making one rehabilitation start in the minor leagues, sure didn’t pitch that way. “El Duque” gave up five runs, eight hits and three walks in four innings.

“The most important thing is that I felt fine,” he said, trying to put a good face on an ugly situation. “I have rested and recuperated. I didn’t throw all the pitches exactly where I wanted to. But I think they were mostly pretty good pitches.”

Seattle had enough runs to win quickly.

Javier led off the game with a single and took third on Rodriguez’s one-out hit before Martinez hit his 26th homer to give the Mariners a 3-0 lead. Martinez leads the majors with 103 runs batted in.

Texas 11, Toronto 6--Rookie third baseman Mike Lamb had three doubles in support of Ranger pitcher Ryan Glynn (3-1), who gave up a three-run first-inning homer to Dave Martinez, then largely shut the door--with one notable crack--until the eighth inning at Toronto.

The Blue Jays’ Carlos Delgado tied teammate Tony Batista for the AL lead in homers when he connected in the sixth inning for his 33rd. Delgado also had a two-run double in the ninth off reliever Tim Crabtree.

Kelvim Escobar (7-12) lost his third successive start. Only Joe Mays of Minnesota (13) has more losses among AL pitchers.

Kansas City 3, Boston 1--Johnny Damon, the league’s top hitter since the all-star break with a .477 average, had three hits and Royal rookie teammate Dan Reichert (5-6) outdueled veteran Tim Wakefield to win at Boston.

Reichert gave up one run and seven hits in eight innings, striking out five and walking three. It was the fourth consecutive start in which he gave up three or fewer earned runs.

Minnesota 7, Detroit 3--J.C. Romero (1-1) overcame a shaky start to pitch six strong innings and Torii Hunter had three RBIs for the Twins in their win at Detroit. It was Romero’s first major league victory.

Denny Hocking and Corey Koskie drove in two runs each for Minnesota.

Tampa Bay 7, Baltimore 4--Greg Vaughn and Jose Guillen hit two-run homers in the third inning for the Devil Rays, who won at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Both homers off Mike Mussina (7-11) were preceded by walks. Vaughn homered in all three games of the series.