Major League Baseball

Tigers fall to Mariners 7-3

Published Jun. 12, 2011 10:42 p.m. ET

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The Detroit Tigers faced the Seattle Mariners for the 10th and final time this regular season.

That means the Tigers might not see Miguel Olivo or Justin Smoak again for a while.

Olivo hit two home runs and Smoak added another to lead the Mariners to a 7-3 victory over Detroit on Sunday. Those two have given the Tigers fits all season. Four of Olivo's 10 homers have come at Detroit's Comerica Park, and five of Smoak's 12 were against the Tigers.

''Olivo got two pitches that major league hitters should hit, and he hit them out of the park,'' Detroit manager Jim Leyland said.

The Mariners trailed 2-0 and hadn't hit the ball out of the infield when Olivo led off the fifth with a home run. Seattle went on to score three runs in the inning, and Olivo added a two-run shot in the eighth.

Seattle ace Felix Hernandez (7-5) allowed three runs on nine hits. He struck out six and walked five. Brendan Ryan had three hits, and Smoak hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Mariners.

Rick Porcello (6-4) went seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Porcello was forcing the Mariners to hit groundballs before Olivo started Seattle's fifth-inning rally with a line drive over the left-field fence. One out later, Chone Figgins walked, and after he stole second, Ichiro Suzuki lined a two-out single over third baseman Don Kelly to tie the game. After Ryan bunted for a hit, Smoak hit a bloop to left-center that dropped between shortstop Jhonny Peralta, left fielder Andy Dirks and center fielder Austin Jackson for an RBI single.

''This loss is entirely on me, because of the fifth inning,'' Porcello said. ''I should have been out of that inning with one run. All I had to do was not throw something that Ichiro could hit, and I threw a terrible backup slider that played right into his hands. If I keep my head, we probably win this game. That's just a dumb mental mistake.''

Kelly prevented more runs when he went back into shallow left field to catch a popup by Carlos Peguero with the bases loaded for the third out, but the Mariners added a couple more in the eighth. After Peguero drew a one-out walk from reliever Daniel Schlereth, Joaquin Benoit came out of the Detroit bullpen and gave up Olivo's second homer of the game.

''When I called timeout, he threw the fastball,'' Olivo said. ''I know he knows I saw the fastball coming, and I know he's going to throw some breaking ball. I just stayed back, and he hangs the change-up.''

Hernandez, last year's American League Cy Young Award winner, allowed a walk to Miguel Cabrera and a single to Victor Martinez to start the bottom of the eighth. Alex Avila hit a two-out single to drive in a run, but Ramon Santiago hit a groundball to end the inning on Hernandez's 126th and final pitch.

Smoak's homer off Adam Wilk made it 7-3.

''I thought we were going to win that game - that was the feeling I had in my gut - but the add-on runs killed us,'' Leyland said. ''We let it get away with those runs at the end.''

Detroit opened the scoring in the second thanks in part to a misplay by Hernandez, who turned and looked to second for a possible force play before throwing too late to first on Dirks' bunt. That infield single gave the Tigers runners on first and second, and Avila eventually drove in a run with a two-out single.

Jackson led off the bottom of the third with a double off the fence in left-center and went to third on an error by Peguero, the left fielder. Hernandez came within a strike of getting out of that jam, but Martinez hit an RBI single with two outs for a 2-0 lead.

NOTES: The Tigers announced after the game they will call up OF Magglio Ordonez on Monday. Ordonez has been rehabbing his injured right ankle with Triple-A Toledo. ... Cabrera reached base in all four trips to the plate against Hernandez, hitting a single and drawing three walks. Martinez hit two singles with a walk. ... Suzuki had two hits for a second straight game after sitting out Friday night.