Blowers, Buhner Power M’S Win

Mike Blowers and Jay Buhner each homered during a seven-run fourth inning, leading the Seattle Mariners to their season-high fifth straight victory, 11-8 over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.

Frank Thomas homered twice for the White Sox, taking over the major-league lead with 31. Still, the Mariners swept Chicago in a three-game series for the first time since Oct. 2-4, 1992.

With the score tied at 2, Blowers led off the fourth against Brian Keyser (3-5) with his 15th homer. Buhner capped the big inning with a two-run homer, his 21st, off Keyser.

Joey Cora added an RBI single, Edgar Martinez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Tino Martinez singled in two runs.

Blowers connected in his fourth straight game to equal his career high for home runs. Buhner homered in his third consecutive game.

Thomas hit a solo homer in the seventh and added a two-run shot in the ninth, both off Bob Wells. He has 10 multi-homer games in his career.

Chris Bosio (8-5) gave up five runs on seven hits and three walks in five innings, but earned his second victory in a row after four straight losses. Bobby Ayala relieved after Thomas’ second homer and earned his 17th save.

The White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the second on Mike Devereaux’s RBI double and Lyle Mouton’s infield out. The Mariners tied the score in the third on Warren Newson’s RBI single and a double-play grounder by Martinez.

Noberto Martin’s triple followed by Dave Martinez’s sacrifice fly and Devereaux’s two-run homer, his ninth, accounted for three Chicago runs in the fifth.

Dan Wilson had a two-run double in the eighth for Seattle.

Notes

Randy Johnson, who missed his last pitching turn Sunday in Oakland because of a sore left shoulder, is scheduled to start Friday night in Kansas City. He made about 20 pitches from the mound Wednesday. Doctors examined Johnson this week and prescribed anti-inflammatory medication to treat his inflamed shoulder. … Tino Martinez increased his hitting streak to 13 games, equaling his career high and the longest by a Seattle player this season.

M’s predict big losses

Declining attendance and the loss of television revenue from last summer’s baseball strike are hitting the Mariners hard in the pocketbook.

Team executives expect to lose $30 million this season, which will bring the losses for the current owners to $67 million since they bought the club. That’s $17 million more than they had bargained for.

The audited financial statements released Tuesday show that in a 10-month fiscal year in 1994, the Mariners lost $15 million, spending almost $10 for every $6 of income the team took in. Much of the loss was traced to the effects of last year’s baseball strike and its impact on national television income.

The Mariners also continue to suffer at the turnstiles. The team is on track to draw just 1.3 million fans at home games this year, down by more than a third over 1993.

The Mariners first began releasing the franchise’s audited financial statements last year, as part of the team’s pitch for public financing for a new retractable-roof ballpark. Owners promised to hand over profit-and-loss numbers each year.