Streaking Yankees Rally to Top Mariners

[BuckFoston]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Tino Martinez homered for the fifth straight game and the New York Yankees rallied twice from big deficits to beat the Seattle Mariners 13-9 on Wednesday for their season-high fifth straight win.

The victory gave New York a sweep of a three-game series for the first time this season.

The loss was Mariners' 10th in 11 games.

Martinez golfed a three-run shot to the short porch in right field off Matt Thornton to get the Yankees even at 9 in the fourth inning. New York trailed 5-0 after the top of the first, but tied it in the bottom of the inning.
Tony Womack tied a career high and the Yankees' record with four stolen bases, and scored three times. Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield each had three RBIs. Jorge Posada hit a solo homer in the eighth, New York's 16th hit.

Both teams hit four home runs and each had five runs, five hits and one error after a first inning that lasted 39 minutes. Seattle starter Jamie Moyer and Yankees counterpart Carl Pavano both threw 34 pitches in the inning and allowed four earned runs.

Both were gone before the fifth.

Paul Quantrill (1-0) worked two innings in relief to earn the victory.Martinez has seven home runs in his last eight starts and has taken over the first base job from Jason Giambi, whose career is in limbo.

The slumping Giambi declined a trip to the minor leagues on Tuesday and is expected to be the designated hitter when the Yankees begin a road trip Friday in Oakland.

Martinez is the first Yankee to homer in five straight games since current hitting coach Don Mattingly tied the major league mark in 1987 with home runs in eight consecutive games.

Derek Jeter homered leading off the fifth inning off Thornton (0-3) to put the Yankees back in front, and two batters later Gary Sheffield made it 12-9 with a two-run shot.

The Mariners looked as though they would salvage a second win on their six-game road trip, but Moyer couldn't make the generous run support hold up.

The 42-year-old left-hander failed in his third attempt to set the Mariners' record for career victories. He is tied with Randy Johnson, now with the Yankees, at 130 wins.

After starting the season 4-0 in his first five starts, Moyer has allowed 16 earned runs and 33 hits in his next three outings that totaled 8 2-3 innings. The Mariners are 0-3 in those games.

Jeter started the first with a single and was safe at second when shortstop Wilson Valdez failed to catch a toss from second baseman Bret Boone on Womack's potential double-play grounder.

Sheffield walked to load the bases and Matsui cleared them with a double to the left-center field gap to make it 5-3. Posada and Bernie Williams added RBI singles in the inning.

New York grabbed its first lead in the second when Sheffield singled in Womack, who singled and stole two bases.

But the Mariners regained the lead with four in the fourth, powered by Ichiro Suzuki's solo homer and Raul Ibanez's three-run shot that made it 9-6.

Richie Sexson hit a three-run shot in the first and Boone followed with a two-run homer off Pavano, who allowed a career-high four in his four innings.

Pavano allowed nine runs but only four were earned thanks to two errors by third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Pavano, who gave up 10 of Seattle's 13 hits, had his third straight no-decision. It is the second time in three starts he hasn't lasted past the fifth.

Notes:@ Every Yankees starter had a hit. ... Suzuki had three. ... The Yankees placed reliever Felix Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list because of torn cartilage in his left knee. They purchased the contract of 3B Russ Johnson from Triple-A Columbus. The team recommended Rodriguez have surgery, but he'll get a second opinion Thursday in Vail, Colo. ... Before Boone's shot, Sexson had hit four of Seattle's previous five homers and nine of the Mariners' first 20 this season. ... Hall of Famer Yogi Berra threw out the ceremonial first pitch, one day before his 80th birthday.

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynam...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[BuckFoston]

5 Straight baby! Tino with 5 consectuive games with a Home Run? Wow, and he is 37. I knew that we would bounce back. That is a good move by the Yankees to send Jason down to the Minors. But thats too bad Felix is hurt. O yah one more thing for you Mariners fans!

[RLA68]

We are rockin now. My Sunday Week in Review segment will be nice this week.

[Veovis]

Three games away from .500!

[love_that_reefer]

Its a real thrill as a baseball fan to see Tino Martinez swinging the bat like he has been lately. Great job Tino.

[nyjunc]

Things are finally starting to settle down, even during the bad early season stretch I was confident we'd be fine by the end of May and so far it looks like we will and now we have 6 more games w/ Oak and Sea in which I'd like to see 5-1 and at minimum 4-2.

[joek]

One at a time.