SEATTLE – Jered Weaver gave up four solo homers — two to Chris Snelling — in the worst outing of his short career and the Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-4 Tuesday night for their season-high sixth straight win.
A scary moment came in the eighth inning when Seattle reliever Rafael Soriano was hit behind the right ear by Vladimir Guerrero's line drive. Soriano was on the field for several minutes, attended to by the Mariners' training staff and medics. He was put on a backboard and taken off the field on a cart.
Soriano never lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital for further observation.
Guerrero later scored on Garret Anderson's double, trimming the lead to 6-4, but J.J. Putz recorded the final five outs for his 28th save in 33 chances.
Weaver (9-2) gave up five runs and nine hits in just 4 2-3 innings. The rookie tied an AL record by winning his first nine career decisions — including a pair of impressive wins over the Mariners — but has now dropped two straight.
Weaver lost to Boston last Thursday, despite surrendering only one earned run on a solo homer by David Ortiz.
Ichiro Suzuki hit his 20th career leadoff homer on Weaver's second pitch, and Snelling followed three pitches later with his first homer of the season. Snelling hit a solo shot in the fourth to right field for his first career multihomer game.
It was Suzuki's seventh home run of the season, but his third time leading off with one.
Raul Ibanez lined an RBI double in the first and hit his 26th homer in the third inning, giving him a career-high 104 RBIs for the season. His previous high of 103 came in 2002 with Kansas City.
It was the fourth time the Mariners hit at least four homers. After an 0-11 road trip that dropped them out of contention in the AL West, Seattle has won seven of eight on its homestand.
Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn (8-12) pitched six strong innings, but ran into trouble in the seventh when he allowed consecutive homers to Anderson and Robb Quinlan. Washburn escaped the inning without further damage and won consecutive decisions for the first time this season. Washburn allowed six hits and struck out four in beating his former club for the third time.
The Angels' defense didn't help either, committing three errors that increased their AL-leading total to 104. Third baseman Maicer Izturis had two errors, and his throwing error with two out in the sixth allowed Ibanez to score from second.
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