SEATTLE (AP) – Jeff Weaver won his second straight start after a dismal start to the season, pitching the Seattle Mariners to a 9-4 win over the Boston Red Sox 9-2 on Monday night.
Jose Lopez capped a five-run fifth inning with a two-run single and Kenji Johjima and Adrian Beltre hit back-to-back home runs for Seattle.
Weaver showed anger and resolve – if not consistent command – allowing an earned run and six hits in 5 2-3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.
Weaver (2-6) yelled at himself, the plate umpire and his fielders during his second straight win following an 0-6 start. In four starts since coming off the disabled list, Weaver has lowered his ERA from 14.32 to 7.71.
Seattle won for the fifth time in seven games on its season-high 12-game homestand despite Ichiro Suzuki, who went 0-for-4 with a walk to end his 19-game hitting streak.
Julian Tavarez (5-5) lost for the first time in eight starts. Boston, the team with the best record in the major leagues, lost a chance to move a season-best 23 games over .500.
Tavarez held Seattle to two hits – Richie Sexson’s double and Ben Broussard’s RBI single – through four innings. He struck out Jose Vidro in the fourth, his only strikeout of the game. But Tavarez stumbled off the mound awkwardly after that pitch.
In the next 1 1-3 innings, Tavarez allowed five runs and four hits with three walks.
Beltre doubled leading off the fifth. After Tavarez threw Yuniesky Betancourt’s sacrifice bunt past first baseman Kevin Youkilis for an error, Willie Bloomquist singled home Beltre.
Tavarez walked Suzuki to load the bases, and Lopez then hit a 1-2 pitch past a diving Mike Lowell at third. That scored Betancourt and Bloomquist to make it 4-2. Lopez, an All-Star last year, is 5-for-8 with the bases loaded this season.
Tavarez left after Richie Sexson’s infield single reloaded the bases. Kyle Snyder then walked Johjima with a full count and Beltre on five pitches to make it 6-2.
Tavarez allowed six runs – three earned – and six hits in his 4 1-3 innings. He walked three.
Johjima’s two-run home run, one pitch after Mike Timlin narrowly avoided getting hit in the head with Sexson’s broken bat, made it 8-2 in the seventh. Beltre hit the next pitch into the left-field bleachers for a 9-2 lead.
Weaver made his own mess in the second with a throwing error on a bunt by Julio Lugo that put runners at second and third with no outs. J.D. Drew then hit a grounder under the glove of second baseman Lopez for a two-run single.
When slugger David Ortiz singled under Betancourt’s glove one out later, Weaver raised both arms and yelled “C’mon!” Then Weaver stomped around the mound when no one covered second base as Ortiz rumbled to his first stolen base of the season. But Weaver struck out Ramirez on a 78 mph floater, and after walking Youkilis to load the bases, he retired Lowell on a groundout to escape the jam, down only 2-1.
Youkilis hit a two-run double in the ninth.
Notes: Still no word from the Red Sox medical staff on when RHP Curt Schilling can begin throwing. Schilling went on the 15-day disabled list Friday with a sore shoulder and showed frustration Monday. Kason Gabbard will be recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket to start for him on Tuesday. … Seattle hit back-to-back homers for the first time this season. … Lugo is hitless in his last 29 at-bats and was pinch-hit for with the bases loaded in the eighth. After fouling out in the fourth, Lugo slammed his bat into the dugout floor.
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