Seattle, WA – Raul Ibanez continued his amazing power surge with a pair of home runs, which was part of a four-homer night for the Seattle Mariners in an 8-3 rout of the Angels.
Kendrys Morales and Kyle Seager also went deep for the Mariners, who set a franchise record by hitting a home run in 20 consecutive games. That eclipses the old mark of 19 during the 1999 season.
It's the first time a team has hit a homer in 20 straight games since the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008. Before Friday, the last AL team to homer in at least 20 consecutive games was the Texas Rangers when they set the MLB record with a HR in 27 straight games during the 2002 campaign.
Ibanez, who has 10 homers in his last 17 games, went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs to help the Mariners snap a three-game skid. They have scored 38 runs in their five games thus far on this homestand.
The problem before Friday was their pitching. The M's surrendered 30 runs to Boston in the final three games of that series.
Joe Saunders (8-8) helped to solve that issue. The left-hander scattered five hits and fanned five over seven scoreless innings to win his third straight start. He has an ERA of 0.87 in that span.
Jerome Williams (5-5) was tagged for seven hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings for Los Angeles, which lost for just the fourth time in its last 15 contests. He came into the opener of this three-game set having pitched 11 consecutive shutout innings against Seattle.
"Jerome has hit a rough patch," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "With some simple adjustments hopefully he'll get back to where he needs to be. I think commanding the baseball, pitching inside a little more and keeping that sinker alive. When he missed those guys were ready and drove the ball off him."
The 41-year-old Ibanez hit two balls that traveled 849 feet. His first homer, a blast into the "Hit it Here Cafe" in right field, led off a four-run fourth inning.
"He's had a special year. he's a special player, a special person. It was just a great night for him," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said.
Ibanez also doubled to right field to drive in Michael Saunders in the first inning and smacked a homer to right-center in the seventh. That was part of a back-to-back, as Morales went deep on the next pitch to center, also off Garrett Richards.
Seager's homer to right led off the home second, and the Mariners piled on the runs in the fourth for a 6-0 cushion. Mike Zunino, who had the first three-hit game of his career, singled in a run, as did Dustin Ackley. Zunino scored on a wild pitch, just after Richards entered the game.
The Angels scored all their runs in the eighth. Mike Trout tripled in a run and scored on an Albert Pujols single to left. Pujols came home on Mark Trumbo's groundout.
Game Notes
Seager extended his hitting streak to 12 games ... The Angels lead the 2013 series, 6-5. Seattle has not won a season series versus the Angels since 2003 (11-8) ... It was Ibanez's third multi-homer game of the year and 19th of his career ... Williams has lost three straight decisions.
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