Ortiz’s homer beats Mariners

SEATTLE — David Ortiz hit a 3-run home run off Brandon League in the eighth inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 9-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night. Jed Lowrie homered twice for Boston, which is seven games behind New York and third in the AL East. League (9-7) entered the game in relief of starter Luke French and quickly retired his first two batters. Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre followed with a pair of singles and League served up a fastball on the inner half of the plate that Ortiz drilled over the wall in right-center field to give the Red Sox a 7-5 lead. The Mariners added a run in the ninth inning. Rich Hill (1-0) got the win in his first appearance since July 27, 2009 with Baltimore. After League walked Varitek to lead off the ninth, Eric Patterson stole second as a pinch runner, moved to third on a ground out by Daniel Nava and scored on a fielder’s choice by Ryan Kalish. Josh Reddick followed with an RBI single to make it 9-5. Lowrie hit his first of two home runs off Mariners starter Luke French in the second inning with a runner on to put the Red Sox on top. Lowrie struck again in the fourth with a solo shot over a leaping Michael Saunders to take a 4-2 lead. French managed to settle down and retire his final 12 batters. Daisuke Matsuzaka drilled Josh Wilson to lead off the fifth inning and Seattle capitalized on the mistake. Ichiro Suzuki doubled to left-center field to score Wilson from first. After Chone Figgins reached on a bunt, Branyan hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Suzuki and tie the game at 4. A leadoff single from Suzuki chased Matsuzaka in the seventh inning. Figgins sacrificed Suzuki to second base and Gutierrez drove him in with a two-out double off the wall in left-center field to give the Mariners the lead.