Sexson’s Five Hits Spark Seattle

Richie Sexson already was four for four with two homers when he came up again with two out in the ninth inning Sunday and practically willed himself another hit.

“I was concentrating pretty hard,” said Sexson, who doubled down the right-field line to finish a career-best five for five in the Seattle Mariners’ 9-4 win over the San Diego Padres. “I’ve never done it before. I thought it would be cool if I could get that. It’s kind of nice. Not everyone does it.”

Sexson was batting only .211 coming in, and had spent a lot of time in the batting cage.

“It was a nice day for me,” the big first baseman said. “I felt pretty good the last couple of weeks, just hadn’t gotten a ton of results, but I think that’s a start for me. It’s just feeling good. Today it finally culminated in some hits for me.”

Sexson came into the game two for 20 against the Padres this season. Including his run-scoring single in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s win, he had hits in six straight at-bats.

He hit a run-scoring single in the first, homered leading off the fourth, singled in the fifth, hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth and then doubled and scored in the ninth. He had three runs batted in and scored three runs.

Ichiro Suzuki also had three RBIs. The Mariners took two of three and finished the season series 5-1 against the Padres. Overall, Seattle has won seven of nine.

Mike Cameron homered for the third straight game, and the Padres also got homers from Khalil Greene and Ben Johnson. San Diego, which dropped a game behind the first-place Dodgers in the National League West, hit eight homers in the series, all solo shots. All three on Sunday came against Joel Pineiro.

The teams combined for 14 homers in the series, a Petco Park record. All were solo shots.

Sexson broke a 4-4 tie when he homered to right-center with one out in the eighth against Alan Embree (2-1).

Sexson and Embree attended the same high school in Brush Prairie, Wash.

“Now he’s got a little bragging rights,” Embree said. “Last time, I struck him out.”

Sexson has 14 homers this season. It was his 23rd multihomer game.

George Sherrill (2-1) pitched a perfect seventh for the win.