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Mariners put up the numbers they need

Ichiro Suzuki collected two more hits but is out on the front end of this double play. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Scott M. Johnson Everett Herald
Ichiro Suzuki collected two more hits but is out on the front end of this double play. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE — Forget 262.

The way Ichiro Suzuki has been piling up hits this season, numbers like 300 – as in, hits – and .400 – as in, batting average – are appearing more and more realistic.

But it was Raul Ibanez’s 400-foot home run that led to the most important number of all Friday: .500.

Ibanez hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Seattle the lead for good and helped the Mariners even their record by way of a 9-6 victory over the Texas Rangers. It marked the third time in four innings that Seattle (2-2) had to rally from a one-run deficit.

“It might be early to say, but tonight was a good indication that there’s no quit in this team,” said the Mariners’ Willie Bloomquist, who followed up Ibanez’s homer with a two-run, pinch-hit single. “We could have folded up our tents a number of times. It’s a tribute to our team’s character that we were able to bounce back.”

The only constant was Ichiro, who collected two more hits despite being intentionally walked twice. He now has eight hits in 15 at-bats this season, with two hits in each of the Mariners’ first four games.

Ichiro also scored two runs and added his first RBI of the season Friday.

Texas eventually tired of his act, intentionally walking him in both the seventh and eighth innings. But the Mariners’ suddenly red-hot bats made the Rangers pay. Adrian Beltre drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh, then Ibanez started a four-run eighth with his first home run of the season.

Seattle rallied for one-run leads in the fifth and seventh, then added a more comfortable cushion in the eighth. The Mariners scored a total of seven runs off nine hits in those three innings alone.

As usual, Ichiro got it all started. He collected his first RBI of the season in the fifth and even got help from No. 2 hitter Jeremy Reed, who ended an 0-for-13 slump by driving in two runs with a double in the next at-bat.

That gave the Mariners a 3-2 lead, but Seattle wasn’t finished rallying. Beltre’s bases-loaded single drove in two runs in the seventh, putting the Mariners ahead 5-4. An error-plagued top of the eighth gave that lead right back to Texas, at 6-5.

Then Ibanez followed Bret Boone’s leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth, homering to center field for a 7-6 Seattle lead. After Ichiro was intentionally walked to load the bases, Bloomquist singled in two more runs for the 9-6 cushion.

Eddie Guardado gave up a double in the ninth inning but retired three other Texas batters to earn his first save of the season.

“That eighth got a little ugly. Two walks and two errors, that won’t make a lot of people happy,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “But our guys battled through that.”