Red Sox 2, Mariners 1 (10)
SEATTLE - The Boston Red Sox came into a four-game series in Seattle one of the hottest teams in baseball, having won nine of 11.
They came out of the weekend against the Mariners happy to have gotten a split of the series, thanks to their first extra-inning win of the year, a 2-1 victory provided by David Ortiz's 10th-inning sacrifice fly on Sunday.
Newly acquired Brent Lillibridge opened the 10th with a double for the Red Sox, then moved to third on Dustin Pedroia's single before Ortiz, who spent the weekend looking for his 400th career homer, settled for a fly ball deep enough to right field to get the run in.
That made a winner out of Vicente Padilla (2-0), who pitched out of a jam in the ninth with Alfredo Aceves getting his 19th save with a 1-2-3 10th.
Save for a four-homer burst over the space of eight batters in the middle innings Friday, the Red Sox seemed completely baffled by the Mariners pitchers over the weekend, but Pedroia ended that with his first homer in six weeks, a solo shot that tied the game at 1-all in the eighth inning.
It was the first homer in 40 games for Pedroia, who has been playing for the last month with a thumb injury that has cut into his effectiveness at the plate. Since his last homer on May 10, the three-time All-Star - passed over this year - has averaged just .230.
Mariner starter Jason Vargas had to struggle to get through the second inning, when he gave up hits to the first two batters and went on to load the bases. But third baseman Kyle Seager made a diving catch for the inning's final out, and Vargas settled down to paint the corners and leave the Red Sox pounding their bats into the dirt for most of the rest of the afternoon until dinged by Pedroia.
Seattle, which has had trouble scoring all year, put together a run in the third when singles by Chone Figgins and Brendan Ryan put runners at the corners with nobody out, and Ichiro Suzuki delivered a deep fly to left to get the run home.
The Mariners could have done more against Boston lefty Felix Doubront, but the light-hitting Seattle lineup let chances slip away. The Mariners put the first two men on against Doubront in the fourth, then couldn't get the ball out of the infield. And in the fifth Seattle forced Doubront out of the game, loading the bases with one out, leading Boston manager Bobby Valentine to ask reliever Matt Albers to stop the bleeding.
It took Albers just one pitch. Mariner cleanup hitter Jesus Montero bounced into an easy double play on the first pitch, keeping the score at 1-0.
