Times have certainly changed for the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians since the last time they faced each other three months ago.
The Indians were a first-place team back then and pushed the struggling Mariners around with some power displays at the plate. This time around, it was the surging Mariners who pounded a floundering Indians team with three home runs in a 5-3 win Monday night that pushed Seattle over .500 at home for the first time since April 18.
Michael Saunders of Victoria hit two of the homers, while Eric Thames had the other to help Seattle win its sixth in a row overall and 13th in the last 14 tries at home. A crowd of 14,687 at Safeco Field saw Saunders snap a 3-3 tie by connecting for a two-run homer in the seventh inning off Cleveland left-hander Tony Sipp.
Things got dicey in the ninth when the Indians loaded the bases with one out off Ton Wilhelmsen moments after Ezequiel Cabrera just missed a tying two-run homer on a broken bat drive off the right field wall. The ball stayed in the park for a double that put runners on second and third and a walk loaded the bases.
But Wilhelmsen got Jason Kipnis to ground into a 4-6-3 double-play to end it.
Trayvon Robinson helped on the defensive side by setting a team record for left-fielders with nine putouts--including a leaping catch in foul territory in the fourth.
The win left the Mariners with a 31-30 record at home, the first time they've been at .500 since being 3-2 on April 18. Seattle has also come a long way since suffering a pair of losses in mid-May at Cleveland to fall to 16-24 on the season.
The Indians came into this series with the league's worst record since the all-star break at 10-26 (.278) and with only a .386 winning percentage over the past three months. Cleveland spent 56 consecutive days in either first or second place in the AL Central from late-April through mid-July before a total collapse.
Cleveland got the early jump on Kevin Millwood when Kipnis led the game off with a solo homer off the right field foul pole.
Saunders put Seattle back in front 2-1 in the third inning with a two-out, two-run homer to centre off Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez. It was the second homer in two days for Saunders, who has been on a tear since the start of the last series against the Twins.
