Against Padres, the Mariners finally discover a winning formula

The other way.

That's the direction Jose Lopez hit the first pitch he saw in the eighth inning.

The other way.

That's the direction the Mariners were facing after Lopez's bases-loaded double to right field scored the decisive runs in Seattle's 3-2 victory over San Diego on Sunday at Safeco Field.

Seattle came back to beat the Padres for the second consecutive game, and while two wins is entirely too soon to proclaim any kind of turnaround, even the most modest winning streak constitutes progress for a team that lost 12 of its first 15 games this month.

"It just shows the mental toughness of this team," said closer J.J. Putz, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning. "Even though we haven't had our luck in close games, we came out the last two nights and played very well."

After skidding through the first half of May, the Mariners (18-27) discovered a formula they followed through the final two games of this series against the Padres:

• Score a first-inning run to grab the lead.

• Give up the lead in the fourth with a two-run home run to Adrian Gonzalez to make things interesting.

• Get a top-shelf start, which was provided by Felix Hernandez on Sunday.

• Appear in imminent danger of wasting that top-shelf start through offensive ineptitude.

• Ride a late-inning rally.

• Spend a few minutes afterward opening the possibility that this season may be saved after all.

That worked on Saturday when the Mariners salvaged a game in which Erik Bedard pitched so well. It worked again on Sunday even though Hernandez didn't get the win because he left the game after the sixth inning because of tightness in his right calf.

Arthur Rhodes was credited with the victory, Putz picked up the save and Seattle won back-to-back games for the first time since April 20 and 22.

Lopez drove in all three of the Mariners' runs this game. His infield ground out scored Ichiro in the first inning, and his eighth-inning double turned out to be the decisive hit.

"He's been our best player here from spring training to today," McLaren said. "That's not knocking anybody, that's just paying praise to somebody who deserves it."

Lopez's double was the Mariners only extra-base hit of the game as Seattle won for the first time all season when scoring fewer than four runs in a game. The Mariners were 0-17 in those games before Sunday.

Seattle had only one base runner in the first four innings against San Diego starter Shawn Estes. That was Ichiro, whose infield single led off the bottom of the first.

The Mariners had two runners on with one out in the fifth, but Willie Bloomquist grounded into a double play. They had a runner on second in the seventh, but Richie Sexson struck out on three pitches.

The Mariners loaded the bases with one out in the eighth after Jose Vidro and Yuniesky Betancourt singled and Ichiro walked. Adrian Beltre struck out, bringing up Lopez with two outs. He swung at the first pitch he saw from San Diego's Heath Bell.

"I tried to hit it that way, right field," Lopez said.

He went the other way with the pitch, and while that one hit can't turn around a month that has been mostly miserable for Seattle, it did help the Mariners point themselves in a new direction heading on a six-game road trip.

"We can't get to .500 in a couple of days," McLaren said. "We've got to take it a step at a time."

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com