M's show punch, winning month

SAN DIEGO — The numbers are a procession of dreariness, underscoring just how profoundly miserable the last two-plus years have been for the Mariners.

8-15. 11-16. 12-14. 8-19. 12-16. 12-19. 12-12. 9-18. 12-14. 12-15. 11-17. 13-15. 11-15. 12-17.

Those are the records for the last 14 full months of Seattle baseball — two 90-plus loss seasons, and a bumpy start to 2006. Now the long, local nightmare is finally over.

With their 9-5 victory over the San Diego Padres on a bombastic eight-homer Saturday at Petco Park, the Mariners clinched their first winning month since the (comparatively) halcyon first season of the Bob Melvin administration.

Kenji Johjima powered the victory with the most explosive game of his U.S. career. Johjima had his first major-league two-homer game and his first four-hit game, and established a new high with four runs batted in.

However, Johjima's night had a painful end when the last batter, Ben Johnson, fouled a ball off his left quadriceps, one pitch before Johnson struck out to clinch Seattle's victory.

"I know that pain, because it happens to me once or twice a year in Japan," Johjima said, adding with a smile, "This probably happened because I got four hits."

Based on his hot bat, Mariners' manager Mike Hargrove had been toying with the idea of playing Johjima today after a night game, but now he will sit. Trainer Rick Griffin termed the injury a bruise and said Johjima is day to day, but added it was lucky the ball missed bone.

Resuming their rampage through the National League West, which had been interrupted by back-to-back losses, the Mariners also got two home runs from Raul Ibanez to run their interleague record to 9-2.

The Mariners were 13-12 in September 2003, and now are 14-7 this month with just five games remaining.

Ibanez downplayed what his effort might mean for his All-Star aspirations, but brightened when informed of the winning month.

"Now that means something to me," he said. "We've been playing great of late. Hopefully, we can build off it and do something with it. Everyone in here feels like we're going in the right direction. Everyone is looking around and saying, 'Hey, we're a pretty good club.' "

The Padres hit four home runs, all solos, on the most prolific power night in the brief history of spacious Petco, which opened in 2004.

"The ball was flying," Hargrove said. "All the homers were smoked, every one of them."

"Hitter's ballpark," joked winning pitcher Jamie Moyer, who worked seven strong innings and left with a seemingly cushy 6-2 lead.

But the Padres unloaded in the eighth with two homers off a struggling Eddie Guardado to make it far more tense than the Mariners had hoped.

After Richie Sexson's two-out RBI single off fellow Prairie High School graduate Alan Embree in the ninth and Johjima's two-run double rebuilt the cushion, J.J. Putz finished off the Padres in a wobbly ninth. Putz allowed four straight hits and his first run since May 23 to bring up the tying run, but struck out the next three.

Johjima, the Mariners' new thumping king of interleague, has a .462 interleague average (18 for 39) with five homers.

"It's good today because I could give a call to my wife in Japan and give a good notice," he said.

Both of Johjima's blasts off losing pitcher Chan Ho Park were no-doubters to left field, the first of them reaching the second deck overhang.

Ibanez has 16 homers and 60 runs batted in, the latter figure second only to Toronto's Vernon Wells among American League outfielders.

"There was a tough wind blowing in from center field before the game," Ibanez said. "Players from both teams thought the ball wouldn't carry."

But it turned into a night that belied Petco Park's reputation as a home-run graveyard. The Padres belted two homers off Moyer, one a tape-measure job by Mike Piazza in the second that pulled him into a tie with Duke Snider for 40th on the all-time list at 407.

"He should have hit it out," Moyer said. "I made a bad pitch and he did what he's supposed to do."

Piazza's majestic shot landed among the patrons dining outside on the third-floor balcony of the Western Metal Supply brick building that looms in left field.

Moyer showed the full range of his skills, grounding a single into right field off Park in the fourth to drive in Jeremy Reed from second base.

"Every squirrel finds a nut," he said. "That's about all I've got to say."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com.