Ichiro, Sele pace Mariners over Athletics

OAKLAND, Calif. — Aside from Ichiro Suzuki’s brief slump — and 0 for 9 certainly counts as a slump for him — Seattle’s star leadoff hitter has carried his fabulous finish from last season into this year.

And the modest right fielder really doesn’t think much of it.

Ichiro had three hits with a triple and two RBIs in his major league-leading 13th multihit game, and the Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 Friday night for their third win in four games.

“It’s just another day,” Ichiro said. “Just regular. Just normal.”

Bret Boone led off the eighth with a solo home run off Ricardo Rincon for his 999th career RBI and Aaron Sele (2-2) outdueled Dan Haren to end a two-start losing streak, calmly working out of trouble in six strong innings for one of his best starts since rejoining his former team.

“It was a struggle, a real battle in there for six innings,” Sele said. “I had to make some good pitches at times.”

Jamie Moyer puts his 4-0 record on the line today for the Mariners, who are looking good during a difficult stretch in which they play 12 of 15 games on the road until May 11.

The A’s stranded 12 runners.

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove had a hard time seeing his pitchers keep putting runners aboard, making for long innings.

“It was five minutes of bliss (on offense) followed by 20 minutes of absolute terror,” he said.

Matt Thornton relieved Sele to start the seventh and immediately walked Mark Kotsay and Jason Kendall, but Thornton then got three straight outs.

In the eighth, Kotsay hit an RBI single against Ron Villone, who came in after J.J. Putz put two runners aboard with two outs. Eddie Guardado worked the ninth for his eighth save in nine chances.