Safeco slide continues for Mariners
SEATTLE (AP) - Matt Garza became the American League's first five-game winner, Evan Longoria had the go-ahead hit in the eighth inning off Cliff Lee and the Tampa Bay Rays kept rolling with an 8-3 victory Wednesday night over the Seattle Mariners.
Garza allowed five hits in eight innings before Grant Balfour allowed a run in the ninth, and Ben Zobrist preserved a tie defensively before sparking the decisive rally for the Rays, who are 11-1 on the road. That's the major league's best start away from home since the 2003 Yankees also started 11-1.
At 20-7, Tampa Bay extended the best AL start since the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
Garza (5-1) reached five victories faster than any pitcher in Tampa Bay history - eight games sooner than Andy Sonnanstine won his fifth in the Rays' World Series season of 2008. Garza's sparkling ERA actually ticked up to 2.09.
Seattle got a rare, two-run home run from Franklin Gutierrez, but little else.
The Mariners lost their fifth consecutive game at home before a chilled and grumpy 14,627, the second-smallest crowd in the 10-year history of Safeco Field.
It's the Mariners' longest skid in Seattle since they lost seven straight into August 2008 - the 101-loss season.
Lee (0-1) dazzled in his delayed Seattle debut Friday by blanking Texas on three hits over eight innings. But the 2008 AL Cy Young award winner allowed 10 hits and five runs - four earned - in eight innings this time. Fastballs that struck three Rays out early turned into ringing hits later.
The last time Lee had allowed 10 hits and five runs was Sept. 9 against Washington for Philadelphia.
About all the Mariners got was Gutierrez's third home run of the season that gave Seattle a brief 2-0 lead in the fourth. It was the Mariners' first homer in 77 innings and AL-low 10th this season.
Tampa Bay immediately tied it. Dioner Navarro doubled and No. 9 hitter Gabe Kapler singled him home on consecutive pitches in the fifth. Then Jason Bartlett lined a double into the left-field corner to score Kapler.
The hamstring tightness for Jack Wilson, a slick-fielding shortstop, came after he ran the bases on a cold night of temperatures dipping into the mid-40s.
In yet another problem, Seattle also placed primary setup man Mark Lowe on the 15-day disabled list before the game. He has inflammation in his lower back and received an epidural injection Wednesday.
NOTES: Seattle DH Ken Griffey Jr. doubled immediately after Gutierrez's home run. It was the 40-year-old's second extra-base hit in 64 at-bats this season. It also tied him with Rafael Palmeiro for sixth all-time with 1,192 extra-base hits. ... Rays manager Joe Maddon said C John Jaso will make his 10th start of the season in Thursday's series finale, to give Navarro a rest.