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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A-Rod Puts Concerns To Rest Rodriguez Returns To Lineup, Homers In First At-Bat As Mariners Thump Angels 8-1

Associated Press

Although Ken Griffey Jr. is missing from the Mariners’ lineup, Alex Rodriguez is back.

The defending A.L. batting champion homered in his first at-bat following two weeks on the disabled list, leading Seattle over the Anaheim Angels 8-1 Friday night.

“I’m relieved, encouraged, all those good things,” said Rodriguez, who went 1 for 4. “Overall this feels great.”

Mike Blowers hit a three-run homer and Jay Buhner added his 21st to back Jeff Fassero (8-3), who won his fourth game in June. Seattle won its third straight and eighth in nine games, improving to 19-5 this month.

At 46-32, the Mariners are 14 games over .500, tying the franchise best of 78-64 on Sept. 29, 1995. They were 11-3 with Rodriguez out of the lineup and and now they’re 2-0 without Griffey.

Rodriguez, who bruised his chest June 11 in a homeplate collision with Toronto’s Roger Clemens, hit a two-run homer in the first off Chuck Finley (3-6). Rodriguez also started two of Seattle’s three double plays.

“I really wasn’t concerned with results tonight,” Rodriguez said. “The only thing I was concerned about was my health and the team winning. It so happened that Finley threw a 1-1 split and I hit it.”

Mariners manager Lou Piniella was surprised at Rodriguez’s performance because of the type of injury he sustained when he was kneed by Clemens while scoring on a wild pitch from third base.

“It’s a little tough on him because he hasn’t been able to do too much work,” Piniella said.

Dan Wilson added a two-run double later in the first inning for a 4-0 lead. Finley, who allowed three homers for the second straight game, gave up eight runs and eight hits in five innings. Finley is winless in five starts since May 31 and dropped to 15-7 against the Mariners.

Seattle made it 7-0 in the third when Blowers, playing for the first time since June 15, hit his first homer since May 31.

“It was nice to contribute tonight,” Blowers said. “I haven’t been playing a whole lot lately. So I finally got a chance to play and it was nice to do something to help this club win.”

After Jim Leyritz hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth for the Angels, Buhner hit a 459-foot homer into the Kingdome’s second deck in left field.

Fassero allowed one run and seven hits in seven innings with three strikeouts and three walks.

In the first two games of a four-game series, the Mariners have hit six homers against Anaheim starters Jason Dickson and Finley. Angels manager Terry Collins sounded discouraged.

“We set up the rotation so they would both pitch here,” he said. “They both were hit hard. You’ll see that when he got the balls down the middle tonight, they did what good hitters do with them - they hit them hard.”

Finley surrendered his fifth career home run to Buhner. It was the longest, too.

“If it had gone out at 385 feet, it would have been just another home run,” Finley said. “But a fastball up in the zone, they don’t pop many of those up.”

Notes: Piniella said before the game that Griffey was available as a pinch hitter. Griffey strained a hamstring Wednesday night. Piniella will see how Griffey feels before Saturday night’s game before deciding if he is ready to return to center field. … Buhner homered for the 16th time in his last 36 games. Mariners tied their most wins in a month. They were 19-8 in September 1995. … Finley has allowed 17 homers this season.