Sasaki Ties Rookie Record and Keeps Mariners on Top

Kazuhiro Sasaki escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning to keep the Seattle Mariners in first place in the American League West with a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.

The Mariners remained a half-game ahead of Oakland for the division lead.

With four games left, the Mariners’ magic number to make the playoffs is three over Cleveland, which is 1 1/2 games behind Oakland for the wild-card spot.

Sasaki earned his 36th save, tying the major league record for rookies set by Todd Worrell for St. Louis in 1986.

Sasaki relieved with one out in the eighth with a 5-4 lead and walked Royce Clayton, loading the bases. But Sasaki retired Rafael Palmeiro on a fly ball to shallow center field and struck out Chad Curtis.

The Mariners added an insurance run in the eighth when Dan Wilson doubled and pinch-runner Al Martin scored on a passed ball by B.J. Waszgis.

Freddy Garcia (9-5), moved up a day in the rotation by Mariner Manager Lou Piniella, allowed two earned runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out six.

Jose Paniagua replaced Garcia at the start of the seventh with the Mariners ahead, 5-3, and gave up an RBI single to Curtis.

The Mariners took a 2-1 lead in the second on Mark McLemore’s run-scoring single off the foot of rookie Doug Davis (7-6) and Mike Cameron’s sacrifice fly.

Seattle went ahead, 4-2, in the fourth when David Bell led off with his ninth homer of the season and Cameron singled in a run. In the sixth, McLemore had an RBI double. Bell, who is sharing third base with Carlos Guillen, went three for four. Alex Rodriguez continued to struggle at the plate, going 0 for four with three strikeouts and leaving him two for 23 during this home stand.

Texas got an RBI single by Scarborough Green in the second and a run on Ricky Ledee’s single in the third.