(Sports Network) - Shin-Soo Choo and the Cleveland Indians look to remain in the win column when they resume a four-game series against the homestanding Seattle Mariners tonight from Safeco Field.
Choo stroked a three-run double during a four-run sixth inning and later cracked a two-run homer in the ninth for the Indians, who ended a four-game losing streak and opened a seven-game trek in positive fashion with yesterday's 6-3 victory. Choo tied a season high with five runs batted in and is hitting .372 with nine RBI over his last 11 games.
"He's a legit complete player," Cleveland manager Manny Acta said on the team's website. "That five-tool word gets thrown around a lot, but he's legit five-tool."
Travis Hafner drove in a run and Asdrubal Cabrera finished 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored for the Indians, who had a 12-7 edge in hits. Josh Tomlin evened his 2010 mark at 3-3 with six innings of three-run ball, Tony Sipp tossed two scoreless innings of relief and Chris Perez struck out one in the ninth for his 17th save.
The Indians will also visit the Angels on this trip and are scheduled to send struggling starter Fausto Carmonato the mound Friday. Carmona has dropped five straight starts and most recently toed the rubber in last Sunday's 6-2 loss versus Kansas City, as he allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Carmona is 11-13 with a 4.19 ERA and 6-4 in 11 road starts this season. He lost to Seattle on August 13 and is 2-2 with a 3.58 ERA in five career games (4 starts) against the Mariners.
Seattle has lost nine of its last 12 games and got another rough outing from Doug Fister. The right-hander lasted 5 1/3 innings on the hill and was touched for four runs and seven hits with three strikeouts.
"It was like watching two different ballgames," Mariners manager Daren Brown said. "First five innings I thought Fister was really good. It looked like we were going to swing the bats well and then it kind of fell apart in the sixth inning. The last part of the ballgame was like a totally different game, quite the opposite and turned the other way around."
Russell Branyan hit a two-run homer to highlight a three-run third inning for the Mariners, who are 2-5 on a 10-game homestand.
Luke French hopes to lighten Brown's spirits when he takes the mound Friday night in the Emerald City. French has alternated wins and losses over his previous six starts, and is coming off a victory versus Minnesota last Sunday.
French delivered seven innings of one-run ball to push his mark to 3-4 in 10 games (7 starts) this season.
The left-hander defeated Cleveland on August 21, 2009 in his only appearance against the club, and held the Tribe to three runs in six innings of a 9-4 triumph in the Forest City.
Seattle won two of three meetings with Cleveland last month at Progressive Field. The Indians, however, are 7-3 in the last 10 meetings in the series and 19-8 against the Tribe at Safeco Field since 2004.