Rangers nip Mariners 7-6

SEATTLE — Josh Hamilton had four hits, including a homer, and drove in three runs to help the Texas Rangers outslug the Seattle Mariners 7-6 on Saturday night, extending their division lead to 4-1/2 games over the Los Angeles Angels in the A.L. West. The Angels lost 6-2 to the Baltimore Orioles Saturday afternoon. The Rangers offense picked up a struggling Colby Lewis (13-10) and hit three solo home runs off Mariners’ starter Anthony Vasquez in the third inning. Elvis Andrus homered into the Mariners bullpen in left field, Hamilton hit a line drive just over the wall down the right field line and Adrian Beltre crushed a first pitch from Vasquez (1-4) off the facade of the upper deck in left field to knot the game at 4-4. A leadoff walk to Gentry chased Vasquez from the game in the top of the fourth inning. After a walk by Ian Kinsler, Andrus singled to load the bases and Hamilton drove in two with a single to right field. Young brought home Andrus with a sacrifice fly as Texas took a 7-4 lead. Mike Carp hit a two-run home run off Lewis into the right-field seats in the fifth inning to pull Seattle within one. Neftali Feliz pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his 27th save in 33 chances. Ichiro Suzuki went 2 for 4 to pass Mickey Mantle and pull even with Pie Traynor for 110th on the all-time hits list with 2,416. Mike Napoli led off the second inning with a double down the left field line and scored on a two-out single to left to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Mariners jumped on Lewis in the bottom half of the inning. Adam Kennedy and Brendan Ryan each singled and a walk to Trayvon Robinson loaded the bases. Ichiro came through with a bouncing single through the middle of the infield that scored Kennedy and Ryan to give Seattle the lead. Kyle Seager followed with a double past a diving Michael Young to score two as Ichiro slid in ahead of the throw to the plate to give the Mariners a 4-1 cushion.