King Felix reaches 100 wins as Mariners beat Astros
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The Seattle Mariners' offense finally scored some runs and helped Felix Hernandez pick up his 100th career win.
Kyle Seager and Jesus Montero each smacked a two-run homer in the Seattle Mariners' 7-1 win over the Houston Astros in the opener of a three-game set.
Hernandez (2-2) fanned nine and surrendered five hits and a walk over six scoreless frames for the Mariners, who had dropped five of their last six games coming in.
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Hernandez had been stuck on 99 wins since his Opening Day victory at Oakland. He suffered subsequent losses to the White Sox and Rangers before taking a no- decision against the Tigers on Wednesday.
"It's a great accomplishment," said Mariners manager Eric Wedge. "I'm glad it's behind him. Obviously, it's something you can't not think about as a pitcher, a player, or even as a manager or coach. I was really happy for him to be able to accomplish that. And to do that at such a young age, he's accomplished so much."
Seattle's offense, which averaged an American-League worst 3.05 runs per contest coming in, had totaled only 13 runs over its last eight games.
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Rick Ankiel hit a solo shot for Houston, which has lost eight of its last nine tilts. Brad Peacock (1-2) allowed seven runs on nine hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings to pick up the loss.
"It's tough," said Carlos Pena. "We take pride in what we do and everytime we lose, it just eats away a little piece of us. There's no doubt about that."
The M's opened the scoring with a run in the first and plated a pair in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to jump out to a big lead.
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Justin Smoak grounded an RBI single down the first base line with runners on the corners and two away in the opening frame. Seager belted a no-doubt two- run shot into the second deck in the third, while Montero cracked a two-run blast off the facade in left-center in the fourth.
Kendrys Morales hit a towering solo homer into the first couple row of seats and Montero lifted a sacrifice fly to right later in the fifth to give the M's a 7-0 advantage.
The Astros got on the board in the seventh when Ankiel launched a solo shot into the Crawford Boxes in left.
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Game Notes
Dustin Ackley had three hits and scored a run for Seattle ... Peacock has not gotten past the fifth inning this season ... The M's were 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position.