Mariners remain red-hot

MINNEAPOLIS – The Seattle Mariners had plenty of chances to put away the Minnesota Twins early and let starter Jarrod Washburn relax a little on Tuesday night.

Although Seattle waited until the eighth inning to score most of its runs, the veteran left-hander wasn’t complaining.

Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson hit consecutive home runs, Washburn won for the first time in seven starts and the wild card-leading Seattle Mariners extended their winning streak to five by beating the Minnesota Twins 7-2.

Washburn snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the first time since July 4.

“When it starts getting attention from other places than my head, you know it’s been too long,” Washburn said. “When you guys start writing about how long it’s been since I won it becomes an issue. Obviously, you’d like to get that out of the way.”

Jose Vidro finished 3 for 5 and the Mariners pounded out 18 hits. Every Mariners starter except Kenji Johjima had a hit by the sixth. Johjima got on the board with a single in the seventh.

Seattle trails the Los Angeles Angels by two games in the A.L. West.

Washburn (9-10) yielded two runs and five hits through six innings and made up for his team stranding at least one runner in each of the first seven innings and managing just three runs.

“We were lucky that Washburn did a great job,” Vidro said. “We missed a lot of opportunities and we were just hoping it wouldn’t haunt us at the end.”

Leading 3-2, the Mariners broke the game open with four runs in the eighth. Beltre sparked the rally with a run-scoring double off Pat Neshek, and two batters later Johjima added an RBI single.

Seattle opened up a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Beltre and Sexson’s back-to-back home runs. It was Beltre’s 20th and Sexson’s 21st and the second time Seattle has gone back-to-back this season.

The two solo blasts were the only runs the M’s could muster through the first five innings despite 10 hits.

Vidro’s two-out double in the sixth scored Ichiro Suzuki from first base to make it 3-0.

Seattle is a season-high 19 games better than .500.

“The Mariners announced they will play a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 26 at Safeco Field.

Because the first game is a makeup of the four snowed-out games at Cleveland in April the Indians will be designated the home team and bat last.