Indians eye another win over Mariners

The Cleveland Indians take aim at their third win in a row on Saturday when they take on the Seattle Mariners in the second part of a four-game set at Progressive Field.

Cleveland won in dramatic fashion on Friday, as Jason Kipnis hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the Indians to a 6-3 win.

Drew Stubbs worked a two-out walk, stole second and moved to third on Michael Bourn's infield single. Kipnis then smacked a Lucas Luetge (0-1) offering over the wall in right to give Cleveland its fifth win in seven tries.

"I was looking offspeed. He threw me a slider," Kipnis said. "When he came back with the same pitch I knew I didn't want to roll over and pull up on it. I just got the bat in a good position and got it up in the air."

Raul Ibanez homered and went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer for the Mariners, who also got a solo homer from Kendrys Morales.

"I'm feeling pretty good at the plate," Ibanez said. "Unfortunately we came up short tonight, but it was a good battle by both sides, and we'll come back tomorrow and do it again."

Seattle's shortstop Brendan Ryan went 2-for-4 with a double in Friday's loss to mark his second multi-hit game in a row. Ryan is currently on a four-game hitting streak following a six-game slump in which he went 0-for-19. Michael Saunders will look to bounce back after going 0-for-5 from the leadoff spot in the series opener.

Rookie right-hander Brandon Maurer delivered a quality start for Seattle on Friday before turning the 3-3 tie over the bullpen after six innings. Hoping for a similar showing Mariners manager Eric Wedge will send Joe Saunders to the hill for the second game of the series.

The 31-year old southpaw allowed only five hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings versus Oakland on Sunday in his most recent outing, but he has yet to find that type of success outside of the state of Washington. Saunders enters Saturday at 3-4 with a 5.51 ERA, but he has lost all four of his road starts and carries a 12.54 ERA in those contests.

"It's hard to explain," Saunders said. "I pride myself on being a good road pitcher and that hasn't happened yet. So hopefully the next start I can finally turn the page. I know I have it in me. It's just a matter of doing it on the road."

Cleveland will counter with the 25-year old Zach McAllister, who has not registered a loss since April 24. McAllister is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA over the span of his last three starts. He earned a no-decision after giving up two earned runs to Detroit over six innings on Sunday.

"I battled. I didn't feel like I had my best stuff," McAllister said after Sunday's extra innings win. "I was definitely happy with the way I battled against a good team like this."

The Indians have picked it up offensively over their past two games and have collected wins in 10 of their past 12 games at Progressive Field. After a slow start to his season, Kipnis has reached base safely in eight consecutive games. The 26-year old second baseman's batting average rose to .244 on Friday as he recorded his second-straight game with multiple hits.

This is the first series of the season between these two teams. They split eight meetings in 2012.