Seattle, Washburn continue strong start against Rays

Baseball Betting Lines

04/22/2009 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jarrod Washburn tossed seven strong innings to earn his third win in as many starts to open the season, as the Seattle Mariners opened a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-2 win at Safeco Field.

Washburn (3-0) struck out nine and walked three, allowing two runs on five hits for the win. The veteran left-hander has now surrendered just four earned runs in 21 innings to start the year. The 34-year-old improved to 12-3 lifetime over 17 starts against Tampa Bay.

Rob Johnson tripled and knocked in two and Yuniesky Betancourt also tripled as part of a three-run fourth for Seattle, which moved to 9-5 on the season. Mike Sweeney was 3-for-3 with an RBI. Brandon Morrow worked a scoreless ninth for his fourth save of the season.

Following a 101-loss season a year ago, the Mariners stormed out of the gates with wins in seven of their first nine games and entered Tuesday having dropped three of four.

Andy Sonnanstine (0-2) was charged with four runs -- three earned -- on six hits and a walk in the loss. The righty struck out seven in his six-inning start.

Pat Burrell and Evan Longoria knocked in the runs for Tampa Bay, which has lost six of seven.

Rays center fielder B.J. Upton, who left Sunday's game against the White Sox with tightness in his right quadriceps, did not play and is considered day-to- day with the injury. Upton missed the first six games of the year because of offseason shoulder surgery.

The Rays opened the game by taking a 2-0 lead. Jason Bartlett led off with a walk and scored two batters later when Longoria doubled to left. After Carlos Pena struck out, Burrell lined a two-single to center, scoring Longoria.

Seattle got one back in the home half as Endy Chavez worked a one-out walk, moved up when Sonnanstine mishandled a Ken Griffey Jr. grounder and scored on a two-out single by Sweeney.

The Mariners took the lead for good with three runs in the fourth. Sweeney was hit by a pitch leading off and took third on a Jose Lopez single to left. Johnson tripled over the head of Gabe Kapler in center, plating both runners, then scored when Betancourt tripled two batters later.

Kapler doubled to lead off the seventh, but Washburn struck out Akinori Iwamura, retired Bartlett on a ground out and got Carl Crawford looking at strike three to end the frame.

David Aardsma worked around a one-out walk to Pena in the eighth and Morrow settled in after allowing a leadoff single to Dioner Navarro in the ninth, getting pinch-hitter Gabe Gross to pop-up and Iwamura to fly out before Bartlett went down on strikes to end the game.

Game Notes

Tampa Bay won four of its seven matchups against the Mariners last season, including three of the four matchups at Safeco, where the Rays had won five of their last six games...Pena was 0-for-3 and had a 12-game hit streak snapped...Washburn fell one shy of his career high for strikeouts in a game...Rays skipper Joe Maddon managed his 500th game for Tampa Bay, passing Larry Rothschild franchise mark of 499 games at the helm...Earlier Tuesday, the San Diego Padres re-acquired infielder Chris Burke from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for cash considerations.

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