Seattle Mariners hit four homers to topple Rockies

SEATTLE – Four homers. That usually works, right?

The Mariners hit four homers Saturday night and continued their (too-late?) late-season surge with a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Safeco Field. 

Robinson Cano started the power show with a laser that enabled him to join a select group. Nelson Cruz closed the scoring with a two-run drive that set a career high and gave him a share of the major-league lead.

In between, there were contributions from Jesus Montero and Franklin Gutierrez, who returned to the starting lineup after a week-long absence.

The Mariners also got a dominant five innings from lefty starter Roenis Elias before he threatened to unravel in the sixth. The bullpen stepped in, though, and kept the game under control.

So there was much to like and, maybe, enough to renew dreams.

The Mariners won for the eighth time in 11 games and closed to within six games of Texas for the American League’s final wild-card spot with 19 games remaining.

“Hopefully, we can do something that looks rough,” Cruz said. “Right now, we’re playing our best baseball of the whole year. We’re pitching well and playing defense. I can say we have a pretty good team right now.”

Yes, the math is grim, but the line isn’t flat.

“Nobody,” manager Lloyd McClendon said, “has pulled the curtains on us just yet.”

Cano opened the scoring against Colorado lefty Yohan Flande (3-3) when he started the second inning by sending a boomer to right that struck the facing of the second deck. It also put Cano in an exclusive club.

The homer was his 50th extra-base hit of the season – a milestone that he’s reached in each of his 11 seasons. Only four other players in history had at least 50 extra-base hits in each of their first 11 seasons.

“Those are the kind of things where you go home, and it makes you work harder every single year,” Cano said.

The other four: Carlos Lee did it in his first 13 years from 1999-2011; Albert Pujols (2001-12) and Eddie Mathews (1952-63) did it in their first 12 years; and Paul Waner (1926-36) did it in his first 11 years.