Mariners Streaking Toward Record Mark

Jamie Moyer won his sixth consecutive decision, Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 21 games and the Seattle Mariners won their fourth in a row with a 4-1 decision over the Cleveland Indians Friday at Seattle.

The Mariners (93-36) ended Cleveland’s three-game winning streak and clinched the season series against the Indians for the first time in four years. They are also on a place to win 115 games, which would be one short of the major-league record set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs.

Seattle is 4-1 against Cleveland this season, with the Indians’ only win a 15-14 victory in 11 innings Aug. 5 in Cleveland when they overcame a 12-run deficit.

Suzuki, who had a 23-game hitting streak--the longest in the American League this season--from April 22-May 18, went three for four to increase his league-leading batting average to .350. He leads the majors with 198 hits, 153 of them singles.

Bret Boone of the Mariners hit his 29th home run.

Moyer (15-5) limited the AL Central leaders to three singles, two in the fourth inning when the Mariners missed their first triple play of the season because first baseman John Olerud didn’t step on the bag.

Moyer has a 1.71 earned-run average in his eight starts since his last loss July 13.

Boston 7, Texas 4--Trot Nixon hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning to power the Red Sox at Arlington, Texas.

The Red Sox improved to 5-0 against Texas this season. Boston pulled to within three games of New York in the AL East.

Troy O’Leary led off with a single against Chris Michalak (6-8), making his first appearance for Texas after being claimed off waivers from Toronto. Shea Hillenbrand singled off Danny Kolb and Doug Mirabelli drew a one-out walk that loaded the bases.

Nixon followed with a line drive off Kolb that just cleared the right-field wall for his third career grand slam and 20th home run of the season.

Detroit 8, Oakland 4--Tony Clark and Jose Macias each drove in two runs as the Tigers snapped out of a prolonged scoring drought and defeated the slumping Athletics at Oakland.

After going 15 consecutive games without scoring more than five runs, the Tigers found their offense at the expense of Tim Hudson.

Hudson (14-7) allowed a season-high eight runs on 12 hits. He walked two and struck out only one as the A’s lost their fourth ina row and saw their wild card lead over Boston shrink to one game.

Minnesota 9, Kansas City 3--Luis Rivas hit a leadoff home run and the Twins won for only the third time in 15 games in defeating the Royals at Kansas City, Mo.

The Twins’ recent slump had dropped them out of first place in the AL Central and put them 6 1/2 games behind Cleveland.

Eric Milton (12-5) held the Royals to one run and seven hits in six innings. He is 3-0 against the Royals this season and 9-2 in his career.

Chicago 5, Tampa Bay 4--American League ERA leader Mark Buehrle won his fifth consecutive decision and Paul Konerko drove in four runs at St. Petersburgh, Fla., as the White Sox won their fourth game in a row.

Buehrle (12-6) allowed four runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. He retired 10 in a row at one point.

Toronto 5, Baltimore 0--Chris Carpenter pitched seven shutout innings to break his seven-game losing streak and the Blue Jays scored all their runs with two outs in a victory at Baltimore.