Griffey, M's Slam Tigers

The addition of Brian Hunter's speed to a lineup with Ken Griffey Jr.'s power gave the Seattle Mariners exactly what they needed.

Griffey hit two home runs, including a grand slam during an 11-run fifth inning, and tied his career high with six RBIs Thursday in the Seattle Mariners' highest-scoring game ever, a 22-6 romp over the Detroit Tigers.

"He helps us set our lineup better," Piniella said. "Hitters behind him will get more fastballs to hit. That's one of the advantages of speed. Let's hope he does what he did in Detroit a couple of years ago."

Hunter led the majors with 74 stolen bases in 1997 before dropping off to 42 last year.

Russ Davis drove in a career-high five runs as the Mariners broke the team record of 19 runs set twice against Texas, on June 28, 1996, and May 20, 1994.

Rafael Bournigal also had two hits in the fifth, the biggest inning in Mariners' history.

Detroit had not given up 11 runs in an inning since Sept. 2, 1959, against Chicago. The 22 runs were the most allowed by the Tigers since losing to Minnesota 24-11 on April 24, 1996.

The Tigers went into the game with a team ERA of 4.04, fourth in the AL. They came out of the contest with a 4.84 ERA.

"Any time a team scores in double digits, it's a long, long game," Bill Haselman of the Tigers said.

Hunter became Griffey's teammate when the Mariners dealt two minor leaguers to be named for him to the Tigers.

"It's a blast," Hunter said of playing in the same outfield with Griffey. "He makes my job a lot easier. I've been a center fielder my whole career and now I'm in left. I just keep an eye on him."

Ken Cloude (2-1) got the victory in relief of Butch Henry, who came with two out in the fifth after Detroit took a 5-1 lead. Henry left because of tightness in his left shoulder.

C.J. Nitkowski (0-1) faced only one hitter, but took the loss, giving up a walk to pinch-hitter Jay Buhner with the bases loaded to force in a run. Buhner eventually scored the tiebreaking run on a single by Bournigal.

David Bell hit a two-run homer and Matt Mieske hit a solo shot for the Mariners. Damion Easley had a homer and a double for the Tigers.

The Mariners trailed 6-1 going into the fifth before breaking loose. Griffey drove in the first run of the inning with a grounder, then came back to hit his 11th career slam.

Griffey's slam came off against Mel Rojas, a 405-foot shot to right field. Griffey hit his seventh homer and fifth in six games

off Rojas in the sixth.

In all, Seattle sent 14 batters to the plate against Dave Mlicki, Nitkowski and Rojas in the fifth. Eight of the runs were unearned because of third baseman Dean Palmer's error.

"No one feels worse than Dean does," Tigers manager Larry Parrish said. "But that was a double play ball. You couldn't have drawn it up better. With a double play, we're out of the inning with a 6-2 lead."

The Mariners broke the team record for runs by scoring three times in the eighth. David Segui had an RBI single and Davis hit a two-run double off Todd Jones, the fifth Detroit pitcher.

Hunter and Bournigal both finished with three hits, though Seattle outhit Detroit by just 19-15.

Held to one run in the first two games of the series, Seattle outscored the Tigers 30-12 in taking the final two games.

Notes: Griffey had the 37th multihomer game of his career and his 35th two-homer game. Griffey tied Yogi Berra for 48th place on the career home run list with 358. ... Seattle's John Mabry had his fifth outfield assist of the season when he threw out Haselman at second from right in the second. ... Hunter is the 64th player to play left since Griffey became the Mariners center fielder in 1989. Hunter is the Mariners' sixth left fielder this season. ... With 13 chances, David Segui of Seattle moved into first place on baseball's all-time fielding percentage list for a first baseman. He has made 30 errors in 7,400 chances (.995945). Steve Garvey's fielding percentage was .995940 (81 errors in 19,951 chances).

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