Suzuki, Mariners Extend Their Streaks

Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 21 games and the Seattle Mariners won their seventh in a row Wednesday night, defeating the Chicago White Sox, 7-2, at Seattle.

Suzuki, who has the longest hitting streak in the major leagues this season, helped the Mariners improve their best-in-baseball record to 30-9.

Suzuki tied Danny Meyer (1979) and Richie Zisk (1982) for the second-longest hitting streak in Mariner history. Joey Cora (1997) holds the franchise record with a 24-game string.

Paul Abbott (2-1) struck out 10 and Carlos Guillen drove in three runs for the Mariners.

Jose Paniagua got five outs for his second save in two nights. Earlier in the day, Paniagua was suspended for three games for throwing at Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox on May 9.

Paniagua, who earned his first save of the season Tuesday night, appealed the penalty. He is able to play pending a hearing.

Trailing, 2-0, the Mariners scored three times in the third inning against Rocky Biddle (1-3). Bret Boone led off with a single, Mike Cameron walked and Guillen hit a two-out, two-run single.

Suzuki, hitting .365 after going two for four, delivered a run-scoring double.

The Mariners added two runs in the seventh on one hit, John Olerud’s bases-loaded double.

Guillen and David Bell had run-scoring singles in the eighth.

Abbott (2-1) gave up two runs on three hits and four walks in 6 1/3 innings. His 10 strikeouts were the most by a Mariner pitcher this season.

Oakland 4, New York 3--Frank Menechino hit a game-winning single in the 10th inning at Oakland to hand the Yankees their third consecutive loss.

With one out in the 10th, Ramon Hernandez was hit by a pitch from Brian Boehringer (0-1), then went to third on Johnny Damon’s double to the right-field corner.

With reigning American League most valuable player Jason Giambi on deck, the Yankees pitched to Menechino, who hit a solo homer in the fifth inning. Menechino hit a drive over left fielder David Justice’s head to score the winning run. Boehringer had not given up an earned run in 16 1/3 innings.

Mark Guthrie (3-0) faced only one batter in the top of the inning to win for the second consecutive game.

Minnesota 4, Boston 3--Pinch-hitter Brian Buchanan hit a tiebreaking homer to lead off the eighth inning for the Twins at Minneapolis.

Buchanan hit the first pitch thrown by Pete Schourek (0-2) about 402 feet into the left-field seats for his second pinch homer of the season.

Kansas City 9, Tampa Bay 5--Joe Randa’s first grand slam capped a five-run rally in the ninth inning for the Royals at Kansas City, Mo.

The Royals trailed, 5-0, after four innings and 5-4 heading into the ninth before rallying against Esteban Yan, whose blown save was his first in six chances.

Cleveland 4, Texas 3--Wil Cordero hit a two-run homer and Jolbert Cabrera had a run-scoring single in the ninth inning at Arlington, Texas, as the Indians rallied for their 11th consecutive road victory.

Alex Rodriguez homered, tripled, doubled and scored three runs for Texas, which has lost 14 of 16.

The Indians trailed, 3-1, when Marty Cordova, who had already extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a single in the second, led off the ninth with a single. Cordero then homered against Tim Crabtree (0-2).

The 11-game road winning streak is the longest for the Indians since 1938.

Baltimore 3, Detroit 2--Pat Hentgen pitched seven strong innings and the Orioles parlayed three hits into a victory at Baltimore.

David Segui drove in two runs and Delino DeShields scored two for the Orioles, whose three-game winning streak matched a season high.

With runners on first and third in the Detroit ninth, Jose Macias lined into a game-ending double play.