Martinez Stays Hot, Burns Angels Again : Baseball: Mariner designated hitter homers, singles, walks twice in 7-3 victory; he becomes first this season to get 50 RBIs.

The small blue sign hanging from the Kingdome’s second deck Monday night read simply: Edgar esta caliente. It was once again an understatement in any language.

Seattle designated hitter Edgar Martinez continued his hot hitting, terrorizing Angel pitchers for the fourth consecutive game in the Mariners’ 7-3 victory.

With Ken Griffey Jr. sidelined by a broken wrist until at least the middle of August, Mariner fans have heaped their adoration on Martinez. But don’t look for Martinez in any TV commercials or on the cover of national magazines.

Martinez might well be the best player no one knows outside the Seattle area. Aside from a few rotisserie-league fiends, that is.

Manager Marcel Lachemann on Sunday threatened in jest to have his pitchers throw the rosin bag instead of the baseball when Martinez came to bat.

Over the course of the four games at Seattle, Angel pitchers might have been better off simply throwing four pitches in the dirt and taking their chances with Martinez at first base.

The chore of slowing Martinez fell to Brian Anderson Monday and he fared no better than anyone else.

Martinez homered, singled, walked twice, scored twice and became the first major leaguer to drive in 50 runs this season. By game’s end, he raised his major league-leading batting average to .376. He reached base nine consecutive times over the course of Sunday and Monday.

Finally, after the announced crowd of 18,126 gave him a standing ovation, he flied out to end the eighth.

In the series, Martinez had nine hits, including two homers and five doubles, four walks, six runs batted in and six runs scored.

“He’s just in one of those grooves the good ones get into and it’s hard to get them out of it,” said Anderson, 1-1. “What you have to do is go after him with everything, including the kitchen sink. You can’t go up there with a certain pattern.”

Said Lachemann: “He’s an awfully good hitter, period, and on top of that he’s hot.”

Tony Phillips led off the game with his 10th homer of the season and the Angels seemed to have Seattle’s Salomon Torres teetering on the brink of serious trouble in the first inning.

But Torres managed to get out of the inning without giving up another run. The Mariners countered with Martinez’s run-scoring single in the first and Luis Sojo’s bases-empty homer in the second.

In the third, Tino Martinez hit a three-run homer to right, pushing Seattle’s lead to 5-1. Phillips’ run-scoring groundout brought the Angels to within 5-2 in the fifth.

Edgar Martinez hit the first pitch Anderson threw him in the bottom of the fifth an estimated 425 feet, just missing the second deck in left field.

After a walk to Mike Blowers, who later scored on a groundout, Lachemann replaced Anderson with Russ Springer. The Angels trailed 7-2 by then.

Anderson was less-than-overpowering in his second start since returning from the disabled list with a strained left biceps, suffered May 5 against Seattle.

He defeated Kansas City in his first start back, pitching a three-hitter for 6 1/3 innings last Tuesday.

But Anderson struggled right from the start Monday. He retired the Mariners in order only in the fourth and gave up eight hits and seven runs with two strikeouts and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.

“He made several bad pitches tonight and they made him pay for it,” Lachemann said. “He didn’t locate the ball well tonight and to their credit they didn’t let him get away with it.”

Torres, the ninth starting pitcher Mariner Manager Lou Piniella has used this season, won his second consecutive start and improved to 2-3. He gave up six hits but had five strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.

The Angels loaded the bases in the seventh and had their hottest hitter at the plate, center fielder Jim Edmonds, with two outs. But Edmonds, who had singled in the first to extend his hitting streak to 20 games, struck out against reliever Bill Risley.

Risley pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, then Piniella turned the game over to closer Bobby Ayala in the ninth. Ayala gave up a run, but nothing else.