Mariners’ Lee Dae-ho hits 5th homer of season

In this Associated Press photo, Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners swings his bat for a three-run home run off Drew Smyly of the Tampa Bay Rays in their Major League Baseball game at Safeco Field in Seattle on May 10, 2016. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners hit his fifth home run of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays at home on Tuesday (local time).

Batting seventh and playing first base, Lee blasted a three-run shot off Tampa’s left-handed starter Drew Smyly in the bottom of the fourth at Safeco Field. Lee’s homer put the Mariners up 6-2.

The Mariners hung on to win 6-4 to improve to 20-13, the best record in the American League West.

The homer was Lee’s only hit in four at-bats, and he’s now batting .283 with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) of .949 in 19 games.

Along with his five home runs, Lee has nine RBIs. The right-handed hitting slugger has been platooning at first base with Adam Lind, an 11-year major league veteran who bats left-handed and gets starts against right-handers.

Lind had his fifth career 20-homer season with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2015 but is struggling mightily so far in 2016. He’s batting .212/.236/.271 with just one home run and five RBIs across 85 at-bats.

Seattle manager Scott Servais said he’d stick to his original plan of using Lind against right-handed starters, even after Lee hit a home run against John Axford, a right-handed reliever of the Oakland Athletics, last Thursday.

Lee signed with the Mariners in February after enjoying successful stints in South Korea and Japan.