Beckham slam ignites M's to romp of Tigers
Tim Beckham hit a grand slam as the Seattle Mariners won consecutive games for the first time in a month by defeating the visiting Detroit Tigers 10-2 on Thursday night.
Kyle Seager also homered for the Mariners, who last won two in a row June 25-26 at Milwaukee.
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc (6-3) pitched six innings for the win, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Right-hander Erik Swanson served as the opener for Seattle, throwing two scoreless innings with three strikeouts and a walk before handing off to LeBlanc.
John Hicks homered for the Tigers, who lost their third in a row and are 2-11 since the All-Star break.
Tigers right-hander Drew VerHagen (1-1), making his first start of the season, went four innings and allowed seven runs (six earned) on six hits. He walked four, struck out four and hit a batter.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the third as Hicks, the first batter LeBlanc faced, hit an 0-1 changeup over the left-center field fence.
The Mariners took the lead in the bottom of the inning. Tim Lopes, making his first major league start, led off with a walk and advanced to third on J.P. Crawford's one-out single to right. Omar Narvaez walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. Daniel Vogelbach then hit a potential double-play grounder to second baseman Niko Goodrum that was bobbled, tying the score and leaving the bases loaded. Beckham then hit an 0-2 pitch over the wall in left field, his 15th home run of the season, to give Seattle a 5-1 lead.
The Mariners scored twice more in the fourth as Lopes was hit in the helmet leading off, stole second and scored on Crawford's triple. Narvaez then hit a run-scoring, ground-rule double to right-center to make it 7-1.
The Tigers got a run back in the fifth after loading the bases with no outs on a Goodrum single, Hicks walk and error on second baseman Lopes. Jeimer Candelario's one-out single drove in Hicks before Miguel Cabrera grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Seager greeted left-hander Blaine Hardy by hitting the first pitch in the bottom of the inning over the wall in right-center, his eighth, to make it 8-2.
Vogelbach hit a two-run double in the eighth to cap the scoring.
--Field Level Media
