Baseball: Ichiro extends hitting streak, Okajima remains in form

Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 13 games with his seventh straight multi-hit outing while Hideki Okajima continued his shutout relief run for the Boston Red Sox in interleague play Sunday.

Suzuki lined a single to center field leading off the bottom of the first inning and added a single to left in the eighth in Seattle's 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, raising his batting average to .333 after going 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.

It was the third time that Suzuki had seven consecutive multi-hit games in his major league career, following the same kind of streaks in May 2001 and July 2003. Seattle catcher Kenji Jojima had an infield popout in a pinch-hit appearance in the eighth.

Okajima took the mound in the eighth with Boston leading 6-2 over the Atlanta Braves and worked one inning of yet another scoreless relief appearance. The rookie lefty allowed two hits to put runners on first and second with one out but retired the next two.

The Red Sox went on to win the rain-delayed game 6-3 and became the first team in the big leagues to reach 30 wins this season.

Okajima, who has an 0.42 ERA after pitching in 20 games in a Red Sox uniform, has gone without giving up a run in 21-2/3 innings since allowing a homer to John Buck of the Kansas City Royals on his first pitch in the majors on April 2.

Elsewhere, Hideki Matsui went 3-for-5, including a pair of doubles and a single, to help the New York Yankees to a 6-2 win over the New York Mets. Matsui saw his average rise to .295.

Chicago White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi was hitless in four at-bats in a 10-6 win over the Chicago Cubs. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi also finished without a hit in two at-bats against the Detroit Tigers, who won 6-3.