Beltre homers then delivers winning single in Mariners’ 3-2 win over Orioles

Beltre, Mariners beat Orioles 3-2

SEATTLE — Franklin Gutierrez tripled with one out in the bottom of the ninth before Adrian Beltre singled him home, sending the Seattle Mariners to a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.

Gutierrez’s drive banged off the top of the wall in left-center just beyond the reach of leaping center fielder Adam Jones. Jim Johnson (2-3) then intentionally walked both Ichiro Suzuki, who had earlier extended his hitting streak to 27 games, and Russell Branyan to load the bases for Beltre.

Johnson fell behind 3-1 on 96 mph fastballs before the crowd of 18,650 stood and roared. On a third 3-2 pitch, Beltre lined a single into left field out of the reach of drawn-in shortstop Cesar Izturis.

Beltre raised both arms in celebration — then kept running past first base and into center field, with jubilant teammates chasing him into a dog pile.

Closer David Aardsma (2-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for Seattle, which won for the fifth time in seven games. He got a strike-out-caught-stealing double play, when Melvin Mora fanned while Aubrey Huff was running for second for the third consecutive time with the count 3-2.

Luke Scott hit his 12th home run off starter Jason Vargas and Huff had three hits, but had a home run call reversed in the first inning for Baltimore, which lost for the fourth time in five games since a revitalizing, five-game winning streak.

Johnson had not allowed a run in his previous nine innings.

Suzuki extended his Mariners record hitting streak with a single off rookie Brad Bergesen in the third. He is three games short of the longest hitting streak in the major leagues this season, by Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman.

Beltre, warming after two subpar months, followed two batters later with a two-run homer off the facing of the second deck well beyond left field to give Seattle a 2-1 lead.

Beltre’s fourth home run of the season was his fifth hit in seven at-bats. It was also the 75th homer allowed by Baltimore, the most in the AL.

Scott tied it at 2 in the sixth with a two-out double off reliever Chris Jakubauskas that scored former Mariner Jones.

Huff lost a homer, when his drive just past the right-field pole was originally called a home run. The umpires then got together in the infield and ruled a foul ball.

Baltimore manager Dave Trembley came out to discuss the ruling and the umpires then went to a video review.

After a 2-minute review of the video, the umpires ruled Huff’s drive was foul.

It was the second time video was used at Safeco Field since the league began using the system last season.

Vargas allowed eight hits and two runs in 5 1-2 innings. He struck out two. The former New York Met has allowed eight runs in five starts this season. Five of those runs have come on solo home runs

Bergesen allowed five hits and two runs in seven innings.