SEATTLE -- Veteran right-hander Chris Young continued to dominate at Safeco Field, the Mariners offense offered a few timely hits and Seattle snapped a four-game losing streak by holding on with a 4-3 win over the Orioles on Saturday afternoon.
Seattle led, 4-0, with two outs and two on in the eighth inning when Kyle Seager allowed a Chris Davis ground ball to scoot under his glove as two runs came around to score. J.J. Hardy then hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-3 before Mariners reliever Yoervis Medina got Manny Machado to ground out to end the inning.
 
Young pitches Mariners to 4-3 win over Orioles
 
Closer Fernando Rodney issued a one-out walk to pinch-hitter David Lough in the ninth inning, but he retired the next hitter, then picked off Lough when he tried to steal second to earn his 28th save.
Young, like most of Seattle's pitching staff, has received minimal run support during the 2014 season -- just 29 runs in his last 10 starts. But in his 21st appearance (20th start) of the year, he had a four-run lead by the fifth inning and little issue taking advantage of the newfound cushion.
The 6-foot-10 right-hander began the day holding opponents to a .188 batting average in Seattle, and he built off those numbers against the O's, allowing just two hits over seven scoreless innings. The 35-year-old struck out eight, walked three and hit one batter while picking up his ninth win and lowering his ERA to 3.04.
It was a much-needed effort for a Mariners offense that entered Saturday near or at the bottom of the American League in runs, hits, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
For a day, none of it mattered as Seattle handed Young an early lead with three runs in an odd third inning.
The rally started when No. 9 hitter Jesus Sucre blooped a single into right field. After James Jones struck out, Dustin Ackley hit a check-swing double that beat a shifted infield when it rolled past third base and down the left-field line.
With first base open, the Orioles opted to intentionally walk Robinson Cano and load the bases to face Kendrys Morales. The maneuver backfired when O's starter Bud Norris hit the designated hitter to force in Seattle's first run. Seager followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
After Corey Hart struck out, Logan Morrison -- who entered the afternoon with five hits in his last 53 at-bats -- lined an 0-2 pitch into left field for a single. Another run scored, but when the ball was misplayed by left fielder Nelson Cruz, Morales didn't try to score from third and was subsequently tagged out because he rounded the base too far after Cruz hit the cutoff man.
Young, meanwhile, breezed through the first two innings before issuing a two-out walk to Nick Markakis in the third, then giving up a single to Delmon Young. But he rebounded to get Adam Jones to fly out to right field to end the inning.
Jones came up in the fifth inning with runners on second and third and two outs, but Young induced a groundout to get out of the jam. Ackley and Cano led off the bottom of the frame with back-to-back doubles to give Young a 4-0 advantage and ensure that the three unearned runs in the eighth inning didn't come back to cost them.
Adam Lewis / MLB.com
 

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