Martinez Ties Record on the Fly

Edgar Martinez wasn’t aware that the record he tied even existed.

Martinez matched the major league mark with three sacrifice flies, and the Seattle Mariners won their sixth consecutive game, defeating the Cleveland Indians, 12-4, Saturday afternoon.

“I knew that doesn’t happen very often, but I didn’t know there was a record for sacrifice flies,” he said. “But it’s kind of nice to have any kind of record.”

The Indians lost their fourth in a row.

Martinez became the 11th player to hit three sacrifice flies in a game and the seventh in the American League.

“Imagine that,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “As long as this game has been played, only 11 players have done that. That astounded me.”

John Olerud went four for five, including his 18th homer, and had four runs batted in. Ichiro Suzuki had his first multihit game since July 25 for the Mariners.

Cleveland’s Ellis Burks homered against Ryan Franklin in the eighth to set a major league record with homers at 41 major league ballparks. It was his 24th homer this season.

Burks, 37, homered at Safeco Field in the first game of the AL division series Oct. 9, a 5-0 victory by Cleveland, but that didn’t count toward the record.

Freddy Garcia (12-7) got his first victory since June 29, a span of five games. He gave up two runs and four hits in seven innings, and struck out four.

The Mariners jumped on Jaret Wright (0-2) for a 7-2 lead in the first two innings.