Hall drives in two runs in debut with Seattle

CLEVELAND (AP) — Bill Hall drove in two runs in his first game for the Seattle Mariners, helping rookie Luke French to a 9-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Friday night.

Hall, acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, started in left field and had two hits. He put Seattle ahead 1-0 with an RBI single in the second inning off David Huff (7-7). His sacrifice fly in a two-run third made it 3-1.

Jose Lopez hit a two-run homer and Russell Branyan and Josh Wilson had solo shots for Seattle, which won for the third time in eight games. The Mariners bounced back from a 7-6 loss in Detroit on Thursday in which they hit four homers, but blew a four-run lead.

French (3-3) allowed three runs and eight hits over six innings to improve to 2-1 in four starts since being acquired July 31 as part of the deal that sent veteran pitcher Jerrod Washburn to Detroit. The left-hander walked three and struck out six.

The 23-year-old French worked out of jams in the second, fourth and fifth innings.

After yielding an RBI single to Andy Marte that tied the score 1-1 in the second, French struck out Grady Sizemore with two on to thwart that rally. French fanned Marte with two on to get out of the fourth and got Jhonny Peralta to hit into an inning-ending double play after yielding an RBI single to Shin-Soo Choo in the fifth.

Marte and Choo both had two RBIs for Cleveland.

Huff gave up five runs and six hits over 31‚Ñ3 innings. He walked four without a strikeout, leaving after yielding Wilson’s third homer of the season and a double to Ichiro Suzuki. Franklin Gutierrez greeted reliever Tomo Ohka with an RBI single and Lopez followed with his 17th homer for a 7-1 lead.

Gutierrez had three hits and scored three runs. He is batting .355 against the Indians, who traded him to Seattle in December.

Branyan hit his 29th homer in the seventh to restore Seattle’s five-run lead. He singled home Gutierrez in the ninth against Kerry Wood.

Notes

Cleveland is 14-3 since the All-Star break when scoring at least five runs but 3-12 when held to four or fewer. … The Indians outscored the Mariners 31-6 in sweeping a three-game series in Seattle from July 24-26. The Mariners had won three of four at Progressive Field the previous weekend. ... Suzuki has hit .350 (112 for 320) in his career against Cleveland.