KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Milton Bradley scored the tiebreaking run on Rob Johnson's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals 6-5 Wednesday.
Ichiro Suzuki had three hits, scored a run and drove in a run for the Mariners. Suzuki, who has a .377 batting average against the Royals, had his major league-leading 11th multihit game of the season. He has a 14-game hitting streak at Kauffman Stadium, including a record eight consecutive multihit games by an opponent.
Bradley doubled to leadoff the eighth against Brad Thompson (0-1) and moved to second on a groundout. After reliever Dusty Hughes walked Casey Kotchman, Johnson hit a fly ball to left.
Brandon League (3-1), the second of four Seattle pitchers, picked up the victory by retiring all four batters he faced. David Aardsma got the last three outs for his league-leading eighth save in nine chances.
The Royals' bullpen has a 3-7 record. The Royals finished the homestand 2-4 with three of the losses charged to the bullpen.
The Royals scored four runs after two out in the sixth to tie the score at 5-5. Jason Kendall, who entered the game in an 0-for-11 skid, had a two-run single to shallow right. Mitch Maier's triple to right scored Kendall and Alberto Callaspo, who had walked.
Maier's triple finished Mariners left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith, who had limited the Royals to one run — David DeJesus' homer to leadoff the game — and three hits the first five innings.
Royals starter Gil Meche, who is in the fourth season of a five-year, $55 million contract, gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks in six innings. Meche is winless in four starts with a 10.13 earned run average and opponents batting .338 against him.
Chone Figgins had a two-run triple in the Mariners' three-run fifth. Suzuki's infield single scored Johnson with the other hit.
Mike Sweeney led off the second with a walk, advanced to third on Kotchman's single and scored when Johnson grounded into a double play.
NOTES: DeJesus' home run was the first leadoff homer by a Royals player since he did it against St. Louis on June 19, 2009. DeJesus has 11 career leadoff home runs. ... Royals LHP John Parrish has not pitched since Saturday because of a sore left shoulder. ... Mariners CF Franklin Gutierrez struck out four times. He went 5 for 23 with nine strikeouts on this six-game trip. ... Seattle starters have a 2.62 ERA in the past 14 games. ... The Royals have lost eight of 12 home games.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.