Arizona hits six homers in win over M’s

PHOENIX — The Seattle Mariners had 14 hits and scored in double digits for the second straight game. It still wasn’t enough to keep up with the heavy-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks. Justin Vargas matched a team record by allowing five homers and the Mariners ended a high-scoring series with a 14-10 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday. “That’s baseball; they scored more than us,” Mariners manager Eric said. “They did it earlier. We did early, too, but they answered back. We just had trouble keeping the ball in the ballpark today.” That’s for sure. Arizona opened the three-game series with a 7-1 win behind Aaron Hill’s cycle, the fifth in franchise history. Seattle outlasted the Diamondbacks in the middle game, winning 12-9 in 10 innings. The finale featured plenty of momentum swings, hard-hit balls and one mad dash around the bases by Ryan Roberts. Miguel Montero hit a two-run homer and had four RBIs. Justin Upton had a three-run shot to end his homerless drought at 82 at-bats. Hill became the first Arizona player to double and homer in three straight games. Jason Kubel and John McDonald each hit solo shots, and Roberts provided the highlight in the sixth inning, circling the bases for the eighth inside-the-park homer in franchise history to give the Diamondbacks six homers in a game for the third time ever. Arizona finished with 10 extra-base hits, its most since 2009 against Colorado, had 16 hits overall and batted around in the fifth inning while chasing Vargas (7-7). The Diamondbacks had 30 runs in three games against the Mariners, their most since scoring 32 against Milwaukee from Sept. 25-27, 2001. “We didn’t quit and kept putting runs in the board,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “Ryno’s inside the parker was exciting, Miggy had a great day. J-Up got back on track. It was a pretty good team effort.” The Mariners couldn’t keep up. Despite scoring five runs against Arizona starter Trevor Cahill (6-5) in the third inning, they couldn’t overcome Vargas’ fourth straight shaky outing and Arizona’s barrage of homers. Franklin Gutierrez hit a three-run homer, Kyle Seager had a two-run shot and Casper Wells drove in two runs for Seattle. “They were really squaring up the ball against us,” Wedge said. A short turnaround from Tuesday night’s late game didn’t slow up the offense in the series finale. Hill got it started with a solo homer off Vargas in the first inning to extend his home hitting streak to 13 games, and Kubel followed with a homer of his own. Hill added a double in the third inning, becoming the first player to homer and double in three straight games since Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria from June 25-27, 2008, and first in the NL since Aramis Ramirez accomplished the feat with the Cubs from July 17-19, 2005. A day after scoring six runs in the fifth inning, the Mariners put up another big number in the third against Cahill. John Jaso had a run-scoring double to the corner in right, Wells followed with a two-run single and Seager made it 5-2 with a drive to right. Vargas couldn’t hold the lead, though, yielding a two-run homer to Montero and a solo shot to McDonald in the fourth that tied it at 5. Upton broke the tie with a never-a-doubt drive — estimated at 457 feet — to the second deck in left-center in the fifth inning, his first since May 23. Roberts added a run-scoring single off Shawn Kelley and McDonald followed with a run-scoring double to make it 10-5. Vargas allowed 10 runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings, the fourth straight start he’s given up at least four earned runs. “They swung the bats well,” said Vargas, who joined Jamie Moyer in 2006 and in 1988 as the only Seattle pitchers to allow five homers in a game. “You can’t take anything away from them, but I gave them some opportunities. They didn’t miss any of them.” The Diamondbacks still weren’t done. Montero hit a two-run single in the sixth off Lucas Luetge and Roberts brought the crowd to his feet, sliding headfirst to beat the throw home for his first circle-the-bases homer. Roberts’ fifth of the season put Arizona up 14-6 and led to a curtain call and lots of heavy breathing on the bench. “I was so gassed,” Roberts said after his first inside-the-park homer. “It doesn’t seem like that far around the bases, but it is when you’re running that hard. I’m just glad I didn’t fall over.” The offensive outpouring allowed Cahill to win his fourth straight start despite not having his best stuff. The right-hander allowed six runs and nine hits in six innings after giving up two earned runs over 23 1-3 innings in his previous three games. “It’s good to get a win any way you can get it,” Cahill said.