Lind’s 6 RBIs lead Mariners past the A’s
SEATTLE — Adam Lind hit home runs in his first two at-bats and had a season-best six RBIs while the Seattle Mariners scored a season-high in runs in a 13-3 rout of the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.
The AL West-leading Mariners won their 11th series of the season, this time behind Lind’s hitting.
After struggling to start the season, Lind flashed the power that made him an offseason target for Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto. Lind hit a solo homer with two outs in the second inning to get Seattle on the board, then capped the Mariners’ six-run third inning with a three-run shot off Oakland starter Zach Neal, making the first start of his career.
Lind added a two-out RBI single in the fifth inning and an RBI double off the wall in the seventh that barely missed being his third home run of the game.
Nelson Cruz hit his 10th home run of the season in the seventh inning, a tworun shot that nearly reached the second deck in left field, and Robinson Cano followed with his 14th of the year an inning later. Leonys Martin, Seth Smith, Kyle Seager and Luis Sardinas all added RBI singles for Seattle, which inched to 10-11 at home after taking the final two games of the series. Seattle rallied from a 5-2 deficit to win on Tuesday night, capped by Martin’s game-ending tworun homer in the ninth inning.
But Martin was the focus of the only potential downside from Seattle’s victory Wednesday. Martin grabbed at his left hamstring after stealing second base in the third inning and was replaced before the start of the fourth inning by Shawn O’Malley. The team said Martin suffered a “tweak” and was day-to-day.