TORONTO – Gil Meche won his fifth straight decision and Adrian Beltre drove in two runs to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.
Meche (9-4) beat the Detroit Tigers on Sunday – the last game before the All-Star break – and Toronto on Friday night – the first game after it.
The only other Mariner to ever make consecutive starts was Freddy Garcia, who started on Sept. 10, 2001, and then on Sept 18, after baseball’s break because of the 9/11 attacks.
Meche allowed three runs and six hits, while striking out five and walking one in six innings.
J.J. Putz pitched the ninth for his for his 17th save in 19 chances.
Adam Jones went 0-for-3 with a walk in his major league debut. The 20-year-old outfielder was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma before the game. He was the Mariners’ minor league player of the year in 2005.
Gregg Zaun and Vernon Wells hit consecutive homers for the Blue Jays, who have lost six of nine. General manager J.P. Ricciardi ripped his team for lackluster play just before the All-Star break.
Ichiro Suzuki, Beltre and Jose Lopez led off the game with three straight singles off Casey Janssen (7-8), then Raul Ibanez hit an RBI grounder. Shortstop Aaron Hill’s throwing error to second allowed Beltre to score Seattle’s second run and Carl Everett followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.
Consecutive doubles by Hill and Russ Adams cut it to 3-1 in the fifth, but Beltre’s two-run double off Brian Tallet in the sixth made it 5-1.
Janssen, who has lost five of his last six decisions, allowed three runs – two earned – and five hits in four innings.
Zaun and Wells homered in the sixth, the eighth time his season Toronto has hit back-to-back homers.
The Blue Jays put runners on second and third in the seventh, but Rafael Soriano relieved and got Frank Catalanotto to strike out and Zaun to ground out to end the threat.
Notes: Toronto RF Alex Rios will miss at least another 10 days because of an infection in his lower left leg, the team said. Rios hasn’t played since fouling a ball off his leg on June 27. … To make room for Jones on the 40-man roster, Seattle asked waivers on RHP Jeff Harris for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release.
AP-ES-07-14-06 2205EDT
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