SEATTLE _ If it was yet another two resounding cracks off the bat of Mike Zunino that resonated most loudly for the Seattle Mariners on Monday night, the manner in which James Pazos silenced the Detroit Tigers in a pivotal sixth inning wasn't far behind.
Zunino's two home runs and four runs batted in were the obvious keys to Seattle's 6-2 win over the Tigers in front of 21,517 at Safeco Field Monday night that the Mariners hope foreshadows what looms as a critical stretch of home games.
The contest is the first of 16 of 19 at Safeco Field for the Mariners, who are now 21-13 at home this season.
The game was tied 2-2 entering a sixth inning that began ominously but ended with Seattle on the way to victory.
A walk and a hit gave Detroit two on with one out when Nicholas Castellanos hit a grounder off reliever Steve Cishek to Mariner shortstop Taylor Motter, an inning-ending double play written all over it.
Instead, the ball glanced off Motter's glove and everyone was safe.
Pazos relieved Cishek, who TV replays showed angrily pounding his glove on the bench in the dugout while a foreboding air fell over Safeco.
Pazos, though, continued what has quietly been a stellar season.
He first froze pinch-hitter Mikie Mahtook with a breaking ball on a 2-2 count that just grazed the outside corner of the strike zone for the second out.
Then Pazos struck out Andrew Romine swinging at a 99 mph high fastball.
He now has allowed just five runs in his last 26 2/3 innings with 36 strikeouts.
With one out in the bottom of the inning, Jarrod Dyson singled.
That brought up Zunino, who had grounded out with two on to end the second and struck out with two on to end the fourth.
But this has been a different Mike Zunino since his recall from Tacoma on May 22. He entered the game having already set a team record for RBI in a month by a catcher with 22 (Dan Wilson had held the record with 21 in April 1996).
Zunino made Detroit reliever Alex Wilson work to a full count, Dyson stealing second along the way.
Then on the eighth pitch, Zunino clubbed it over the wall in left field, giving the Mariners a 4-2 lead they wouldn't give up.
As if to try to further prove his resurgence is lasting, Zunino then hit another two-run homer _ again scoring Dyson _ off Francisco Rodriguez to make it 6-2 in the eighth.
Zunino has eight home runs and 27 RBI since May 29 with 26 hits in his last 65 at-bats.
If Zunino and Pazos were the obvious stars, manager Scott Servais would also likely point to rookie starter Sam Gaviglio, who battled some wildness to get the key outs he needed to keep Seattle in it early.
Gaviglio walked four, and he threw 84 pitches in five innings.
But he also induced double plays in the third and fourth innings to limit the damage.
The key one came with the bases loaded and no outs in the third off the bat of Alex Avila. The play gave Detroit a 1-0 lead but when Gaviglio got the next out, it was also a big wasted opportunity for the Tigers.
Gaviglio allowed another run on a two-out double by Ian Kinsler in the fifth, which came after it appeared Gaviglio had picked off Jose Iglesias for the final out of the inning.
Instead, Iglesias _ initially leaning toward second _ dove and evaded the tag of Danny Valencia.
Still, it was another solid start for Gaviglio, who could be sent to Tacoma later this week if the team recalls Hisashi Iwakuma, who worked two innings in a rehab start for the Rainiers on Monday night.
Gaviglio, who hadn't appeared in a big-league game before May 11 but was forced into the rotation due to injuries, has pitched at least five innings in all seven of his starts and allowed two or fewer runs in five.
Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth to close it out as the Mariner bullpen threw four scoreless innings.
