Mariners Get Enough Offense in Time

Desi Relaford ruined Rick Reed’s masterpiece with a leadoff homer in the eighth inning, helping Jamie Moyer and the Seattle Mariners salvage a disappointing week with a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday at Minneapolis.

Relaford and Ben Davis, whose sacrifice fly gave Seattle an insurance run in the ninth, will be rewarded for their run-scoring swings by Manager Lou Piniella.

“I told the players before the game that I’m buying steaks for RBIs,” Piniella said. “I guess I’m buying two steaks. I was hoping to have to buy eight or nine.”

They had to start somewhere.

The Mariners, four games behind idle Oakland in the American League West, won for only the second time in six games and kept their second-half record from dropping to .500. Seattle managed only five runs in the series.

“It’s getting down to the close right now,” Relaford said, “and we need all parts of the game. Our offense hasn’t been there.”

Moyer, who struck out seven, gave up five hits and one walk in seven scoreless innings. Winning for the first time in four starts, Moyer (13-6) improved to 10-5 in his career against the Twins. He gave up an infield single to Denny Hocking leading off the eighth before yielding to Arthur Rhodes.

Jacque Jones sacrificed and Luis Rivas moved Hocking to third with a groundout, but Corey Koskie ended the inning with a lineout to Jeff Cirillo at third and Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched the ninth for his 33rd save in 38 attempts.

Reed (12-7) took a shutout into the eighth, but Relaford hit his first pitch of the inning into the folded-up football seats over the right field wall to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

“He had been throwing me cutters and changeups, and I just kind of had a hunch that he was going to come in with a fastball,” Relaford said. “It was just kind of a guess.”

Reed gave up one run and seven hits in 7 2/3 innings, and struck out out eight.

Toronto 7, New York 4--Josh Phelps homered twice off Roger Clemens, leading Esteban Loaiza (7-7) and the Blue Jays over the Yankees at Toronto.

Phelps and Carlos Delgado both hit long shots against Clemens (11-5), helping prevent Clemens from earning his 292nd career victory in front of a SkyDome crowd of 32,679, which included many Yankee fans.

Alfonso Soriano hit his 32nd homer for the Yankees, who saw their three-game winning streak end. Bernie Williams went 0 for 4 and saw his season-high 19-game hitting streak end.

Texas 9, Baltimore 6--Ivan Rodriguez hit his fifth career grand slam to complete a big Ranger comeback and Texas defeated the Orioles at Arlington, Texas, to complete a three-game sweep.

Rodriguez’s grand slam came in the sixth inning off reliever Rick Bauer (6-6), who had struck out the first two batters of the inning.

Baltimore had led, 6-0, in the third inning. The Orioles have a six-game losing streak, matching their season high from the first week of the season.

Texas, in last place in the AL West for the third consecutive season, has won 10 of its last 14.