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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Homers Give Sanders A Lift Mariners Hit Six In 13-8 Victory; Others Deliver As Griffey Denied

Associated Press

Six home runs by the Mariners helped Scott Sanders get his first win for Seattle.

Surprisingly, Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t hit any of them.

Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner both homered twice and Joey Cora extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a homer Monday as Seattle outlasted Minnesota 13-8.

“The biggest difference today was that they gave me a lot of runs,” said Sanders (1-5), who allowed five runs and eight hits in 5-1/3 innings. It was the right-hander’s first win for Seattle since coming over in an off-season trade with San Diego.

“I’m just happy to get that monkey off my back and to get that five-game losing streak out of the way and start fresh,” Sanders said.

Martinez hit a pair of three-run homers and Buhner connected on two solo shots as the Mariners won for just the third time in 11 games.

Cora led off the game with a homer and Russ Davis added a solo homer in the ninth for Seattle.

“Basically, I was going to give him every chance to win that ballgame,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said of Sanders. “Let’s hope that it builds up his confidence and he can go out there now and relax and he can throw the ball like we expected him to and the way he is capable.”

Greg Myers homered and Rich Becker went 3 for 3 for the Twins.

Griffey, who hit his major league-leading 22nd homer on Sunday, went 0 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.

After the Twins had trimmed Seattle’s lead to 6-5 in the fourth inning, Buhner hit his first homer of the day and 10th this season in the fifth.

Martinez hit his first homer in the first off Scott Aldred (2-7), who lasted just one-third of an inning. He was charged with four runs, three hits and three walks.

“He just had a rough start,” Twins catcher Myers said. “I’m sure it made him mad to start the game like that. Eight straight balls. … I would guess it did.”

Seattle added four runs in the sixth on Dan Wilson’s RBI single and Martinez’s second three-run shot, his seventh homer this season. It was Martinez’s 11th career multihomer game.

Cora hit Aldred’s second pitch into the left-field seats for his fifth homer. Wilson and Griffey walked before Martinez delivered a three-run shot to left.

“We certainly had a bad day pitching. That’s an understatement, I guess,” Twins manager Tom Kelly said. “It was just a bad day on the pitcher’s mound for both teams. Ours was worse.”

Cora’s hitting streak ties a team record, matching streaks by Dan Meyer in 1979 and Richie Zisk in 1982.

In the ninth, Buhner hit his second solo homer and 11th this season. He has 18 career multihomer games.

Minnesota’s Paul Molitor moved into a tie with Rod Carew for 17th on the career hit list with an RBI double in the sixth. Molitor and Carew have 3,053 hits. Cap Anson had 3,081.

Notes

The Twins activated outfielder Marty Cordova from the 15-day disabled list and placed right-handed pitcher Dan Naulty on the 15-day DL. Cordova batted .375 with four doubles, a home run and four RBIs during a six-game rehab assignment at Triple-A Salt Lake. … Minnesota’s Chuck Knoblauch stole his 15th and 16th straight bases and now has 25 overall.