Guillen paces M’s

ARLINGTON, Texas – Jose Guillen is healthy and he’s leading the offensive charge for the Seattle Mariners in August.

Guillen homered and drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the seventh to lift the Mariners past the Texas Rangers 4-2 on Friday night.

Seattle has won seven of eight, and 19 of 26 since a season-long seven-game losing streak. The Mariners remained one game behind the Los Angeles Angels in the American League West. Seattle leads the wild-card race by three games over the New York Yankees, who lost to Detroit.

Guillen is coming off an injury-riddled 2006 season in which he played only 69 games with the Washington Nationals. The season was cut short when he had reconstructive elbow surgery last July 25.

But Guillen, who also battled leg injuries earlier this season, is hitting .344 with six home runs and 19 RBIs in August.

“I’ve gone through a lot since last year,” Guillen said. “It has taken a lot of hard work and dedication to come back. I had to change the way I swing because I was so sore. But all the soreness is gone now.”

Guillen hit his 19th home run with two outs in the first inning, then broke a 2-all tie with a hit that scored Ichiro Suzuki.

Then in the eighth, Guillen made a nice running catch in right on Michael Young’s liner to end the inning.

That preserved the win for Felix Hernandez (10-6). He allowed three hits and struck out seven in six innings to improve to 4-0 over his last six starts.

Hernandez wanted to go out for the seventh inning because he was confident Seattle’s offense – which is hitting .333 in August – would get him the win.

“If I gave up another run, I knew they were going to score some runs for me,” Hernandez said.

David Murphy hit a two-run homer in the fifth for Texas, which lost its second straight after scoring 39 runs – including a record 30 in the opener – in a doubleheader sweep at Baltimore on Wednesday.

Kevin Millwood (8-11) was the hard-luck loser.

He allowed four runs and 13 hits in 8 2/3 innings, falling just shy of the Rangers’ first complete game of the year.

Millwood had won five straight starts at home since June 6.

“It was a tough night,” Millwood said. “Those guys are swinging the bats as well as anybody I’ve seen all year. To hold them down and give us a chance felt pretty good.”

Ichiro, who had three hits for his 61st multihit game of the season, had a one-out infield single in the seventh. He took second on a grounder to set the stage for Guillen.

Guillen lofted a soft single to right off Millwood to plate Ichiro and put the Mariners ahead 3-2.

J.J. Putz got his 37th save.