Olerud Delivers His Second Cycle

John Olerud hit for the cycle, completing the feat with a dramatic two-run, 464-foot home run in the ninth inning, as the Seattle Mariners defeated the San Diego Padres, 9-2, Saturday night at San Diego.

Olerud also hit for the cycle on Sept. 17, 1997, while with the New York Mets, against Montreal. It was the third cycle by the Mariners, the first since Alex Rodriguez did it June 5, 1997, at Detroit.

Olerud doubled in the second and tripled in the third, both off starter Carlton Loewer, and scored both times. He singled in the fifth off Jose Nunez.

With Mark McLemore aboard on a double and one out in the ninth, Olerud drove 1-1 pitch from David Lee deep into the right-field seats. It was his ninth homer of the season.

At 52-14, the Mariners are off to the second-best 66-game start since 1900 behind the 1912 New York Giants (54-12). Seattle won its third in a row and for the 21st time in 24 games.

The Mariners have defeated the Padres four of five times this year by a combined 35-14. John Halama (6-4), who also defeated the Padres last Sunday, won his third consecutive decision. San Diego has lost 17 of 21.

The Mariners knocked out Carlton Loewer (0-2) after he gave up Olerud’s triple into the right-field corner leading off the third and Mike Cameron’s single that made it 6-0. Loewer allowed six runs on seven hits, four of them for extra bases.

Ichiro Suzuki hit an RBI triple into the right-center field gap in the sixth for his major league-leading 105th hit.

Arizona 3, Detroit 1--Luis Gonzalez continued to haunt his former team, driving in two runs with a homer and double, as the Diamondbacks defeated the Tigers at Phoenix.

Gonzalez was with the Tigers until 1999, when they sent him to Arizona for Karim Garcia and $500,000. Since then, Gonzalez has hit 84 home runs in 2 1/2 seasons, and Garcia is playing for triple-A Buffalo in the Cleveland organization.

Detroit’s Tony Clark homered in his fourth consecutive game, but Arizona pitcher Robert Ellis worked his way out of a bases-loaded sixth-inning jam to preserve the lead.

San Francisco 2, Oakland 1--Armando Rios had an RBI triple in the eighth inning, and Benito Santiago drove him home with a go-ahead single at San Francisco as the Giants rallied for their fifth consecutive victory.

Jeff Tam (0-2) needed four pitches to waste a brilliant performance by Oakland starter Cory Lidle, who gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings.

Barry Bonds, who hit two homers Friday night to give him 36 this season, went 0-for-2 with two flyouts and a seventh-inning walk.

Houston 2, Texas 1--Richard Hidalgo’s sacrifice fly and a nimble slide by Jeff Bagwell in the eighth inning at Houston gave the Astros the victory.

With the score tied 1-1, Bagwell started the eighth with a double off Tim Crabtree (0-5) to right-center field. He went to third on Lance Berkman’s long fly out to right and scored on Hidalgo’s fly, sidestepping catcher Marcus Jensen before coming back to touch home plate.

Kansas City 4-4, Milwaukee 2-1--Dan Reichert (6-6) shut down the Brewers after giving up a leadoff homer to Devon White to give the Royals their second victory of the day at Milwaukee.

Carlos Beltran and Luis Alicea homered and Paul Byrd (1-1) got the victory in the opener, which was the completion of a game suspended the previous night because of a partial power outage at Miller Park.

Atlanta 8, Boston 0--John Burkett gave up two hits in eight innings at Atlanta, and Javy Lopez and Wes Helms drove in two runs apiece for the Braves.

B.J. Surhoff had three hits, three stolen bases and scored twice for Atlanta, which had lost two in a row.

St. Louis 8, Chicago White Sox 3--J.D. Drew was three for four with a three-run homer and Dustin Hermanson (6-4) ended a four-game losing streak as the Cardinals won at St. Louis.

Drew hit his 21st homer in the fifth inning, off Kip Wells (3-3). He also bunted for a hit in the first and singled in the seventh, making him 15-for-30 (.500) with two homers during a seven-game hitting streak.

Philadelphia 14, Baltimore 6--Johnny Estrada, Brian Hunter and Jimmy Rollins homered during a seven-run sixth inning and the Phillies defeated the Orioles at Philadelphia in a game delayed by rain three times.

Estrada led off the sixth with a homer to left, his third. Hunter then followed with his second homer of the season. Tomas Perez and Doug Glanville singled off B.J. Ryan before Rollins’ homer to center, his seventh, off Leslie Brea.

Montreal 7, Toronto 2--Vladimir Guerrero hit his 150th career homer, and Matt Blank (1-2) earned his first major league win as the Expos defeated the Blue Jays at Montreal.

Guerrero went three for four, including a two-run shot off Esteban Loaiza (5-7) in the third inning for his 14th homer of the season as the Expos snapped a three-game losing streak.

Pittsburgh 6, Cleveland 4--Jason Kendall had a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth inning off Jaret Wright (2-2) and the Pirates rallied from three runs down at Pittsburgh to win.

Juan Gonzalez’s two-run homer and Roberto Alomar’s run-scoring single gave the Indians a 3-0 lead in the first against Pirates starter Jason Schmidt (3-2). However, Schmidt shut out the Indians over the next five innings.

Florida 11, Tampa Bay 0--Brad Penny and Ricky Bones combined on a one-hitter at Miami as the Marlins defeated the Devil Rays.

Cliff Floyd drove in four runs for the Marlins (33-33), who reached .500 for the first time this season.