Sexson, M's get back in swing

SAN DIEGO — Joel Pineiro succinctly summed up the Mariners' outlook these days when he said, after their 9-4 victory Sunday over the San Diego Padres, "Let's not change anything we're doing."

Quite a transformation, huh? It wasn't that long ago — three weeks and four days, to be precise — that many fans (and columnists) wanted just about everything about the Mariners changed. Like the manager, the general manager and much of the roster, for instance.

That seems like another lifetime. Now they have streaked to a 16-7 record since the low point of a six-game losing streak in late May that left them 10 games under .500 and seven games out of first.

It remains to be seen if the Mariners' revival will be sustained, or if it is merely the function of playing inferior National League teams, or just a random hot streak. For now, however, this is a team transformed, and a season reborn.

Richie Sexson hopes he is a slugger reborn, just like his 2005 free-agent comrade, Adrian Beltre, seems to be.

Sexson had one of the most productive games of his career Sunday at Petco Park, which suddenly is playing like a combination of Coors Field and Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out.

It was the first five-hit game in his career, with two of them going out of the ballpark. After eight homers flew out of the purportedly pitcher-friendly ballpark on Saturday, there were five more homers on Sunday, bringing the three-game series total to a Petco record 14 — freakishly, all with the bases empty.

Sexson and Beltre both know what it would mean to have those two hitting with the authority the Mariners envisioned when they signed them two winters ago for a combined $114 million.

"We know our offense is really good, even though it's not showing that on paper," Beltre said. "The last two weeks, our bats are waking up, and our record is showing that when Richie, me, Ichiro and those guys are swinging the bat good, we have a great chance to win the game."

Beltre's revival preceded Sexson's, and may have also precipitated it. Beltre, who had an RBI single in the Mariners' decisive four-run eighth, is hitting .311 with five homers and 18 runs batted in since May 26 to lift his average from .207 to .249.

"I think hitting is just contagious," Sexson said. "I know it's a cliché, but it really is. Adrian's started hitting, and we've all kind of fed off that."

Since dropping a game in Texas on May 30 for their sixth loss in a row, the Mariners have hit for a .300 team average, and are scoring 6.1 runs per game. They have 36 homers and 46 doubles in those 23 games, which has seen them pull to one game of .500.

"It's helping the pitchers, too," said Pineiro, who gave up four runs in six innings. "Any team, when you hit the ball, it provides a lot of confidence to the pitcher. Especially when we're getting the runs early, like we have been. It gives you a little room to work with."

Sexson's second home run came in the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie. He hit it off Padres lefty reliever Alan Embree, the only other major-leaguer to graduate from Prairie High School in Brush Prairie (five years before Sexson) and a longtime friend.

"It stung a little when he got me today, because I've had pretty good success over the course of time," Embree said. "Now he's got a little bragging rights. Last time, I struck him out."

Embree offers an objective viewpoint on what a revived Sexson and Beltre could mean for the Mariners' attack.

"If you get those guys going, it changes their whole lineup," he said. "That's what they were brought to Safeco for. When they get going, they've got a good lineup, and they have some good young pitching."

Sexson and Embree were teammates in the Cleveland organization from 1993-96, and Embree has been a follower of his career from afar since then.

"He's always ridden those first-half blues and got going," Embree said. "He started out pretty slow last year, but his home-run numbers and RBI numbers are up, and that's what they brought him to that ballpark for."

Even after the five hits, Sexson is hitting just .225, but his 14 homers and 51 RBI project to 29 homers and 107 RBI over a full season. And the Mariners still hope to get him closer to the 39 and 121 he produced last year.

"He's been scuffling, even though his home runs and RBI aren't far off last year," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "His average is not what he'd like. Certainly, Richie makes his hits count."

Sexson's final hit came in the ninth, an opposite-field double that made him the first Mariners player to get at least five hits since Raul Ibanez tied the American League record with six hits against the Angels on Sept. 22, 2004.

"I've felt pretty good the last couple of weeks," he said. "I haven't gotten a ton of results, but I think it's a start for me."

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