By Howie Rumberg
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Seattle Mariners snapped their 17-game losing streak today, riding a 17-hit attack led by Ichiro Suzuki and rookie Dustin Ackley to a 9-2 victory over the New York Yankees.
Felix Hernandez pitched seven innings for his third straight win in the Bronx. Suzuki had four hits and scored two runs. Ackley tripled among his three hits and drove in three runs as the Mariners did something they failed to accomplish during the skid: they turned an opponent’s mistake into a big inning.
Seattle took 21 days worth of frustration out on three relievers, scoring five runs in the seventh inning — highlighted by Mike Carp’s bases-loaded triple — after Robinson Cano flubbed a flip to Derek Jeter at second base for an error.
The Mariners added two more in the ninth when Adam Kennedy doubled in Ackley and scored on Carp’s single to give Seattle its most runs since it had nine in a win against Tampa Bay on June 5.
After a win July 5, the Mariners were 43-43 and 2½ games back in the AL West, a pleasant early season surprise. But it all fell apart in a hurry.
The longest skid in the major leagues since Kansas City lost 19 in 2005 began with a loss at Oakland on July 6 and included four-game sweeps against division rivals, the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers. The Mariners led in seven of the games, twice in the seventh inning, and loss No. 10 — to the Blue Jays — came in 14 innings.
Their last nine games have been against the AL East. They lost three to Toronto, three to Boston then dropped the first two to New York, managing just one hit Tuesday night.
Manager Eric Wedge shaved his mustache after losing Saturday, pushed back the report time and canceled batting practice Tuesday but had nothing up his sleeve Wednesday: “No, the only trick is these guys have to go out and do better,” he said before the game.
And that’s what they did.
The Mariners came in hitting .218 during the streak but smacked around a struggling Phil Hughes (1-3) for nine hits and two runs over six innings. Still, Seattle had trouble getting runners home before Carp’s triple in the seventh.
Ackley was stranded on third after he hit a two-out RBI triple in the third. Ackley singled in a run in the fifth, but that was it after the Mariners loaded the bases with none out. Kennedy led off the sixth with a double and was stranded there.
But Seattle let loose in the seventh after Cano’s error on Ackley’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.
The Mariners had lost Hernandez’s previous five starts, but they had to gain some confidence from sending the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner to the mound.
Hernandez (9-9) had never lost in the new Yankee Stadium, never even given up a run in two starts in the billion-dollar ballpark. In fact, the Mariners beat New York the past five times he started.
He was nearly as dominant in the Bronx again. He gave up two hits through four innings before New York loaded the bases in the fifth on a walk and two hits, one nearly an out when shortstop Brendan Ryan made a diving stop and whirling throw to first but Justin Smoak’s foot was pulled off the bag on the stretch.
Jeter hit a sacrifice fly for the Yankees’ first run against King Felix in 21 innings here to make it 2-1.
Hernandez gave up five hits, walked four and struck out five to win for the first time since June 24.
Cano had a run-scoring groundout in the eighth.