HOUSTON – Craig Biggio hit a three-run homer to back Woody Williams’ strong outing and the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 9-4 on Saturday night.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Mariners after a season-high five-game win streak.

Williams (3-9) went 6 2-3 innings and allowed four runs and eight hits, striking out four and walking none. Williams retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced.

Williams was 0-5 with six no-decisions in his first 11 starts against Seattle from 1993-1999 but is 4-0 with two no-decisions against them since then.

Cha Seung Baek (3-3) lasted only four innings and gave up seven runs, six of them earned. He allowed nine hits and two walks while striking out four.

Hunter Pence tripled to drive in a run and Carlos Lee drove in Pence with a single to give Houston a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Biggio’s fifth home run of the season drove in Mike Lamb and Brad Ausmus in the second inning to make it 5-0.

Williams was hit in the lower leg by a batted ball from Yuniesky Betancourt in the third inning. Williams fielded the ball and threw wildly to first for an error that allowed Betancourt to go to second.

Williams was checked by the team trainer and stayed in the game after throwing some warm-up pitches to test the leg. One out later, Ichiro Suzuki hit an RBI single up the middle for Seattle’s first run.

Brad Ausmus singled to center to drive in Mark Loretta for a 6-1 lead in the third inning.

After Betancourt drove in two runs with a single in the fifth to pull Seattle within three, Loretta’s RBI double in the fourth gave Houston a 7-3 lead.

Jose Guillen led off the sixth with his ninth home run of the season to close the lead to 7-4.

Morgan Ensberg hit his seventh homer of the year, a two-run shot in the eighth.

Notes: Mike Lamb is 6-for-7 with an intentional walk in the two games against Seattle. The Mariners didn’t get him out until the seventh inning Saturday on a fly ball to left. … Jose Lopez played third base for a full game for the second time in his career, and made an error on the first batter of the game. Lopez, who started at third June 17, 2005, against the Mets and played one inning there in 2004, took a bouncer off his chest from Biggio in the bottom of the first inning. … Biggio’s second-inning homer gave him 998 career extra-base hits. He is 11 hits away from 3,000 for his career. … Ichiro’s single in the third gave him an 11-game hitting streak.

AP-ES-06-16-07 2140EDT