The Associated Press

The Seattle Mariners’ biggest offensive game at Safeco Field made it easy for Aaron Sele to get his first win in his new home.

Tuesday, May 16, 2000

The Seattle Mariners’ biggest offensive game at Safeco Field made it easy for Aaron Sele to get his first win in his new home. Edgar Martinez hit two homers and drove in five runs, and Sele pitched seven scoreless innings in Seattle’s 14-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.

The Mariners jumped to a 9-0 lead after three innings, and the 14 runs were the most they’ve scored at Safeco Field, the $517.6 million stadium they moved into last July 15.

”When you do get early leads, it makes it nice,” said Sele (3-2), signed in the offseason as a free agent. ”I felt good enough to finish it, and my pitch count was low, but we had some guys in the bullpen who needed some work.”

It was Minnesota’s worst loss of the season. The Twins lost 13-4 to Boston on April 11.

”It was a bad day for us,” Twins manager Tom Kelly said. ”We haven’t got knocked around all year. Maybe we were due for our knockaround time.”

Martinez hit a two-run homer in the third inning to give Seattle a 7-0 lead and added a three-run shot in the fifth.

”I’m not surprised at anything Edgar does,” manager Lou Piniella said. ”He’s a strong young man.”

Martinez is not so young anymore. But the Mariners’ 37-year-old designated hitter is off to a sizzling start, leading the team with 41 RBIs while hitting .351 with 10 homers.

”Sometimes when you get a little older, you wonder if you can still do it,” Martinez said. ”This makes you feel like you can play for a few more years.”

Alex Rodriguez also homered for the Mariners, who returned from a 2-5 road trip that knocked them out of first place in the AL West.

Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 1

Pete Schourek allowed four hits in eight innings and kept Toronto from homering at SkyDome for the first time this season.

Trot Nixon drove in three runs for the first-place Red Sox, who moved a game ahead of the idle New York Yankees in the AL East.

Toronto was averaging seven runs at home and homered in a club-record 21 straight home games before being silenced by Schourek (2-3).

Rangers 6, Devil Rays 5

Ivan Rodriguez’s three-run homer off Rick White (1-3) in the seventh inning lifted host Texas over Tampa Bay.

Darren Oliver (1-2) allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings for his first win in eight starts. John Wetteland pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save.

Jose Canseco, Jose Guillen and Gerald Williams homered for the Devil Rays.

Athletics 6, Royals 3

Randy Velarde, Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez homered in a five-run sixth inning to back the strong pitching of Mark Mulder for host Oakland.

Ben Grieve also homered for the A’s, who won for the sixth time in seven games to maintain their hold on first place in the AL West.

Mulder (2-0) went six-plus innings and allowed three runs – one earned – on six hits to snap a string of four no-decisions since beating Cleveland in his major league debut April 18.