Devil Rays sweep aside Mariners for first time

SEATTLE — Aubrey Huff drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI groundout in the ninth inning and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays completed their first series sweep of the Seattle Mariners with a 6-5 victory on Wednesday night.

With the game tied at 5 in the ninth, Geoff Blum drew a leadoff walk and went to second on Rey Sanchez’s sacrifice. Scott Atchison (1-2) intentionally walked Carl Crawford, and Julio Lugo followed with a single to load the bases.

George Sherrill then came in and got Huff to hit a grounder to second base, but Bret Boone’s only play was to first as Blum came home with the go-ahead run.

Travis Harper (5-2) pitched 12/3 scoreless innings in relief, and Danys Baez got three outs for his 25th save in 27 opportunities.

Under former Mariners manager Lou Piniella, the Devil Rays won the season series from Seattle 5-2. Tampa Bay is 10-6 against the Mariners in two seasons under Piniella.

Ichiro Suzuki remains one hit shy of 200 for the season after going 0 for 4 for the Mariners, who fell a season-low 33 games under .500 and were swept for the 10th time.

Tampa Bay tied it at 5 in the seventh on Lugo’s sacrifice fly. Blum walked, Sanchez singled and Crawford sacrificed the runners over before Lugo’s fly to center drove in a run.

In the sixth, Bucky Jacobsen put the Mariners ahead 5-4 with a three-run homer to cap a five-run inning. Randy Winn singled in the first run and Edgar Martinez added a sacrifice fly before Jacobsen’s 421-foot shot to left.

Four of Seattle’s runs in the sixth were unearned because of a throwing error by third baseman Jorge Cantu.

The Devil Rays bunched five hits in the second for four runs. Blum had a two-run single and Sanchez and Lugo added RBI singles.

Devil Rays starter Jorge Sosa pitched 61/3 innings, allowing five runs — four unearned — and six hits.

Seattle’s Ron Villone went seven innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks, with three strikeouts.

Notes

Bucky Jacobsen leads A.L. rookies in homers since the All-Star break. He hit his eighth homer in 32 games since being called up from Triple-A Tacoma on July 15. … In four career starts against Seattle, Jorge Sosa has an ERA of 0.64. His career ERA is 5.11… . Manager Bob Melvin said injured closer Eddie Guardado, who had arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday, was back on his feet Wednesday and walked to his first therapy appointment. The next step is to get his left knee, which had a torn meniscus, strong enough so Guardado can work his torn rotator cuff back into shape. Guardado went on the disabled list Aug. 1 because of the injured shoulder and has opted to rehab it rather than have surgery… . Relief pitcher Julio Mateo, on the DL with tendinitis in his right elbow, threw off flat ground Wednesday and may go on a minor league rehab soon. Melvin said Mateo could return to the team during their next homestand… . Ryan Moore, the Puyallup golfer who won the U.S. Amateur last weekend, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday’s game… . Eddie Vedder, lead singer in the rock group Pearl Jam, spent the afternoon with the Mariners along with guitarist Mike McCready and others. They took their cuts during a private batting practice session.