Lopez smacks three homers in Mariners’ win

TORONTO — Jose Lopez hit three home runs, Michael Saunders added a two-run drive and the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 on Wednesday night. Lopez hit a solo shot off starter Kyle Drabek in the second inning, led off the sixth with a blast off reliever Brian Tallet, and connected again off reliever Shawn Camp in the eighth. It was his first multihomer game of the season and fourth of his career. Lopez, who has 10 home runs, hit all three homers to left field. It was the 11th three-homer performance in Mariners history. Mike Cameron had Seattle’s only four-homer game, doing it May 2, 2002, against the Chicago White Sox. Saunders added a two-run shot in the second as the Mariners won for the third time in five games after a seven-game losing streak. Vernon Wells had a solo shot, Toronto’s major league-best 233rd. The Blue Jays hit a club-record 244 homers in 2000. Seattle’s starting lineup had combined for only 38 home runs, fewer than the major league-high 49 of Toronto’s Jose Bautista, but it was the Mariners who came out on top in this one. Seattle, whose offense has scored a major league-low 481 runs, improved to 37-19 when scoring four runs or more. Mariners right-hander David Pauley (3-8) came in winless in five starts but earned his first victory since Aug. 18 by allowing two runs and six hits in six innings. He walked two and matched a season-high with five strikeouts. Jamey Wright pitched two innings and former Blue Jays reliever Brandon League worked the ninth, surrendering an RBI groundout to John Buck. Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 1 for 5, leaving him two hits from becoming the first player to record 10 consecutive 200-hit seasons. Ichiro leads the majors with 198 hits. Bautista went 1 for 4 with a double. Fans cheered when Bautista hammered a 2-1 pitch down the left field line in the fifth, but the ball hooked foul. Bautista got a loud ovation as he returned to home plate to pick up his bat. Making his second career start and his home debut, Drabek (0-2) allowed three runs and four hits, including two homers, in five innings. The key player acquired by Toronto in last December’s trade with Philadelphia for Roy Halladay, Drabek walked one and struck out three. The Mariners opened the scoring in the second when Ryan Langerhans hit a two-out single and Saunders followed with a homer to center, his ninth. Lopez made it 3-0 with a two-out shot to left in the third before Toronto closed the gap with a two-run fourth. Wells led off with his 29th homer, and second in as many days, and Edwin Encarnacion had an RBI-groundout. Lopez homered again on Tallet’s first pitch of the sixth, then greeted Camp with a two-run blast in the eighth.