M’s offense breaks out

SEATTLE – So maybe all Mike Sweeney needed was a chance.

His at-bats were so sporadic through the first five weeks of the Seattle Mariners’ season that nobody really knew what to make of his .500 spring training batting average.

Was it merely a feast on pitchers getting into shape? Or did Sweeney just need some regular at-bats?

He got those in the past week, when the Mariners faced a string of left-handed starting pitchers who provided the manager an opportunity to start him more than a few times a week.

Friday night, when Sweeney started for the sixth time in the past nine games, he provided a week’s worth of hitting in the Mariners’ 15-8 victory.

Sweeney hit two home runs, drove in six runs and finished with a 4-for-5 game. The 15 runs were a single-game high for the Mariners this season, beating the 11 they scored on April 16 against the Detroit Tigers.

“It was a nice breakout win,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “To see these guys relax a little bit and attack the baseball was special.”

In a game projected to be a pitching duel between the Mariners’ Cliff Lee (2.08 earned-run average) and the Padres’ Wade LeBlanc (1.54), Sweeney broke out.

The six runs Sweeney produced were more than the team had managed in all but five games this season.

His three-run homer was the big blow in the Mariners’ seven-run second inning.

That inning began with the Mariners trailing 2-0 and Milton Bradley hitting an innocent-looking grounder down the third-base line. As Padres third baseman Chase Headley went to backhand the ball, it hit the bag and bounced away for a hit.

LeBlanc walked the next two hitters before Josh Wilson dumped a single into right field, scoring Bradley.

Ichiro Suzuki followed with another hit to push home Casey Kotchman and tie the score at 2, and Chone Figgins backed that up with a sacrifice fly that scored Josh Bard for a 3-2 Mariners lead.

The Mariners got another gift on a Franklin Gutierrez grounder to third base, this one handed to them by Headley. Playing deep for the double play, he instead threw the ball home, too wide and too late to get Wilson.

Sweeney, the next hitter, launched a drive that gave the Mariners a 7-2 lead.

Bard hit a solo home run with one out in the third inning. Then the Mariners scored five runs in the fourth, including Sweeney’s two-run homer. Bard also hit a two-run double in the inning.

Sweeney also hit an RBI single in the Mariners’ two-run fifth.

Then it was up to Lee to maintain that lead, and it wasn’t a breeze. He allowed seven earned runs over 6 1/3 innings.

“Cliff wasn’t as sharp, but he battled and went to 115 pitches,” Wakamatsu said. “We have a couple of extra days before his next start to play with.”

Mariners 15, Padres 8

E—Venable (2), Jo.Lopez (4). LOB—San Diego 9, Seattle 6. 2B—Eckstein (10), Ad.Gonzalez 3 (7), Hundley (3), Denorfia (1), F.Gutierrez (6), J.Bard (3), Jo.Wilson (1). HR—M.Sweeney (4), off LeBlanc; J.Bard (1), off LeBlanc; M.Sweeney (5), off C.Ramos. RBIs—Ad.Gonzalez (26), Headley 2 (18), Hundley (10), Salazar 3 (4), I.Suzuki (9), Figgins (13), F.Gutierrez (21), M.Sweeney 6 (13), Kotchman (18), J.Bard 3 (4), Jo.Wilson 2 (6). SF—Headley, Figgins. RLISP—San Diego 7 (Hairston Jr. 2, Eckstein, Salazar, Headley 2, Denorfia); Seattle 3 (Jo.Lopez, I.Suzuki, J.Bard). RMU—Salazar, Gwynn, E.Cabrera.

IR-S—A.Russell 2-2, Colome 2-2. WP—Cl.Lee, Colome. T—3:13. A—24,139 (47,878).