Mariners back to losing

SEATTLE – Chien-Ming Wang allowed seven hits in seven innings for his 15th victory, and Robinson Cano drove in three runs in the New York Yankees’ 9-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada and Jason Giambi each added two RBIs to help the Yankees win for the sixth time in seven games – all on the road.

Wang (15-5) has lost just once in nine starts since July 8, and is tied with Justin Verlander and Johan Santana for second in wins in the majors – one behind Roy Halladay.

Seattle lost for the 12th time in 13 games, looking much more like the team that finished an 0-11 road trip on Sunday than the one that “upset” the Yankees on Tuesday night.

Felix Hernandez (10-12) lost his third straight start by allowing nine hits and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings, his shortest start of the season. Four walks gave New York 13 base runners and only 11 outs against Hernandez, who impressed the Yankees last August by allowing just four hits in eight innings of a 2-0 loss to Randy Johnson.

This time, the Yankees jumped on the 20-year-old’s vaunted hard stuff.

Cano staked Wang to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-hop single that scored Bobby Abreu and Giambi.

The Yankees blew open the game with a five-run fifth. Cano walked, Melky Cabrera singled and the second of three Nick Green singles loaded the bases. Damon then whacked Hernandez’s high-and-outside, 97-mph fastball for a single that drove in Cano and Cabrera to make it 4-0. Derek Jeter followed with a fielder’s choice and Abreu walked to reload the bases.

Giambi, the designated hitter because of a sore hamstring, bounced a double over first base to score Damon and Jeter. Abreu scored on Posada’s single.

Any worries the Yankees may have had about Wang allowing 27 hits and eight walks in his last 16 1/3 innings entering Wednesday ceased. He allowed three hits in the first six innings before losing his shutout in the seventh.

Third baseman Green – starting for Alex Rodriguez, who was out with a throat infection – threw Richie Sexson’s infield single away for an error. Sexson eventually scored on Jose Lopez’s infield single on which Cano’s throw to first appeared to beat Lopez.

Yuniesky Betancourt’s bloop single drove in Lopez to make it 7-2.

Posada had a sacrifice fly and Cano an RBI double off Joel Pineiro in the eighth.

Notes

For the third consecutive game, catcher Kenji Johjima started the game on the bench as reserve Rene Rivera started. Why? manager Mike Hargrove said Rivera had caught Baek before – and Johjima had not – and that Rivera and Hernandez were comfortable together. Johjima will start tonight. … Throwing out the first pitch Wednesday was Cuban soccer player Maykel Galindo, who defected in Seattle by walking out of the Cuban team’s hotel and boarding a bus. Catching the first pitch was Seattle shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who defected by floating on a raft from Cuba to Mexico. … Even though the Mariners on Sunday broke their streak of using only five starting pitchers all season – and have now used seven – their total is still the lowest in the majors. … Betancourt is batting .313 at Safeco Field this season, second on the team to Ichiro Suzuki, who has hit .344.