Balentien’s homer, Vargas’ pitching leads Seattle to 7-3 win over Arizona

Balentien, Vargas power Seattle 7-3

SEATTLE — Wladimir Balentien hit his first home run in nearly two months, and Jason Vargas retired 17 straight Arizona batters at one point in the Mariners’ 7-3 win over the Diamondbacks on Saturday night.

Mike Sweeney broke a 2-2 tie with a bases loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Franklin Gutierrez added an RBI single as Seattle won for the fourth time in five games.

Vargas (3-2), a piece of the three-team, 12-player trade general manager Jack Zduriencik pulled off during last year’s Winter Meetings, again displayed the talent that’ll likely keep him part of Seattle’s future plans.

The Mariners found out Saturday they will be without outfielder Endy Chavez for the rest of the season after sustaining a serious right knee injury in a violent collision with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt Friday night.

Before the game, Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu wondered if Balentien would take advantage of the opportunity, or if the organization would need to look for another outfield option.

For one night, Balentien showed he’s serious. He singled in the second inning, then caught up to Arizona starter Billy Buckner’s high fastball on an 0-2 count, driving a solo homer into the outfield bullpen in the fourth.

It was Balentien’s second homer of the season and first since April 25 against the Los Angeles Angels. He started the day hitting just .223 and had just six hits in his previous 50 at-bats. His last multi-hit game came on May 15.

Balentien also leaped into the crowd to make a backhanded catch for the final out.

Billy Buckner (2-4) struck out a career-high seven for Arizona, but lost his third straight. He gave up nine hits and four earned runs.

Tied 2-all in the seventh, Betancourt and Suzuki opened with singles and Russell Branyan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Sweeney hit a one-out fly to deep left field to easily score Suzuki with the go-ahead run, and Gutierrez then dribbled a single to center to score Branyan.

Betancourt added some insurance in the eighth with a two-run double off the center field wall to score Chris Woodward and Rob Johnson, who slid over Betancourt’s bat to score.

Sean White pitched the eighth, but gave up an RBI single to Upton in the ninth. David Aardsma got out of the jam for his 14th save in 15 chances.

Bouncing back from his last outing when he gave up 12 hits and seven earned runs in Colorado, Vargas stymied the Diamondbacks following a wacky first inning.

After Justin Upton’s one-out single in the first, Vargas retired the next 17 batters. Upton broke the string when he clubbed Vargas’ first pitch of the seventh inning for his 13th homer of the season, but Vargas escaped the inning without further damage.

Other than Upton’s two hits, Vargas allowed just a leadoff single to Felipe Lopez in the first. Vargas struck out four and walked none.