Cairo's squeeze in 10th lifts Mariners past Jays

[June 10, 2008]  TORONTO (AP) -- Miguel Cairo's safety squeeze after Jason Frasor walked the bases loaded in the 10th inning lifted the Seattle Mariners over the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 on Monday night.

Frasor (1-1) walked Raul Ibanez leading off the 10th. Pinch-runner Willie Bloomquist stole second and Adrian Beltre struck. Frasor then intentionally walked Jose Lopez and walked Wladimir Balentien to load the bases.

Brian Wolfe came on to face Cairo, who bunted back to the mound, scoring Bloomquist.

R.A. Dickey (1-1) worked two scoreless innings for the win and J.J. Putz twice loaded the bases with in the 10th before finishing for his seventh save in 10 chances.

Putz loaded the bases with none out before getting Lyle Overbay to hit into a 3-2-3 double play, then walked Marco Scutaro to reload the bases. But David Eckstein flied out to center to end the game.

Toronto has lost seven of nine and is 2-6 in June after going 20-10 in May.

Seattle fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland earlier in the day, replacing him with Lee Elia, who had been serving as a consultant.

The Mariners, who came in having lost six of seven and 14 of 18, held a 30-minute, closed-door meeting in their clubhouse before batting practice.

Seattle wasted no time in jumping on Toronto right-hander Jesse Litsch. Ichiro Suzuki opened the game with a single and came around when Jose Vidro homered into the second deck in right, his fourth homer of the year.

A shaky Litsch was lucky to avoid more damage over the next two innings. Left fielder Kevin Mench retired Vidro with a running catch on the warning track to leave the bases loaded in the second, and center fielder Vernon Wells raced all the way to the wall to make a fine catch on Richie Sexson's drive in the third, stranding runners at first and second.

Toronto cut it to 2-1 in the fourth when Mench drew a two-out walk and scored on a double by Overbay, then tied it in the seventh when Eckstein scored on a throwing error by Yuniesky Betancourt.

Both teams put the potential go-ahead run on third with two outs in the ninth, but neither was able to score. Vidro ended the top half by grounding into a fielder's choice and Scott Rolen grounded out in the bottom half, sending the game to extra innings.

Litsch allowed two runs in six innings and equaled a season high by giving up 10 hits. He walked one and struck out four.

Seattle left-hander Jarrod Washburn gave up one run and five hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out four.

Notes: Toronto OF Shannon Stewart (right ankle), who was placed on the 15-day DL Sunday, is likely to be sidelined for a while, general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. Stewart had an MRI Monday, but no results were available. He sprained his ankle Saturday when he stepped awkwardly on first base. ... Ten of Seattle's past 11 homers have been solo shots.

[Associated Press]

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