Edgar Blasts 3 HRs To Lead M's

Edgar Martinez is feeling a lot younger this week.

Martinez hit three home runs, tying a major league record with five homers in two games, to give the Mariners a 10-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

"The way I've played the last two days, I think I'm better than ever," the Seattle Mariners' designated hitter said. "When you have a series like this, your confidence is a lot better. So you feel like you're 21."

"I'm just enjoying the last two days," he said with a smile.

Martinez, who had a day off Sunday, went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and has seven homers on the season. It is his 16th multihomer game and the second time he has hit three homers in a game.

"Sometimes a day off helps you reflect and see things from the outside," said the 36-year-old. "So that could be part of it."

Martinez's heroics even overshadowed teammate Ken Griffey Jr., who hit his fourth home run in five days to tie Jose Canseco for the major league lead with 15 homers.

Martinez, the AL batting champion in 1992 and 1995, said he has made some adjustments at the plate. He was 4-for-21 before Monday night's game. In his two games, he's 6-for-8 with five homers and seven RBIs.

"Basically, I changed the location of my feet and my hands," he said. "That's allowed me to cover the plate a little better right now. It's showed. I've been able to drive the ball to the right and also to left field."

The Mariners matched their season high with their third straight win and handed the Twins their fifth loss in a row.

Rookie Freddy Garcia (5-1) pitched for the first time in 10 days after being hit by a line drive in the right shoulder off the bat of Chili Davis at Yankee Stadium. He gave up one run, seven hits and one walk in seven innings.

"We weren't sure how bd the injury was, but it didn't seem to slow him down at all," catcher Dan Wilson said. "Sometimes when guys get too much rest they're up in the zone. I think early on he had a little bit of that, but he settled into a pretty good pace and he was able to keep the ball down."

Rookie Dan Perkins (0-3) gave up seven runs, six hits and four walks in 4 1-3 innings.

"We talked about Griffey in the first inning," Perkins said. "Throw a fastball and hope he hits it at somebody. He happened to hit it at somebody in the eighth row."

Manager Tom Kelly watched the Mariners batter his pitching staff for the second straight night. Seattle won 15-5 Monday night.

"The Mariners did exactly what you're supposed to do when you make bad pitches," he said. "They hit it over the fence. They take the walks and they beat you up."

Griffey homered in the first to open the scoring. The Mariners added four runs in the second. John Mabry had an RBI single, Butch Huskey and David Bell brought in runs with groundouts and Alex Rodriguez singled in a run.

The Twins got their run in fourth on doubles by Matt Lawton and Corey Koskie.

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