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Scott Spiezio gets in safely at second for his 10th double of year Thursday. (Jim Bryant/AP)

The two-run home run rookie third baseman Justin Leone hit in the seventh inning Thursday night became the first of the Mariners' 66 home runs this season to turn a deficit into a lead that would last for the remainder of the game.

Thanks to that home run and the superb pitching of right-hander Joel Pineiro and left-handed closer Eddie Guardado, the Mariners ended a nine-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Indians before 32,896 at Safeco Field.

It was fitting that one of the newest Mariners would deliver the key blow for a team that will spend the second half of the season examining its future. Earlier in the day, veteran first baseman John Olerud and catcher Pat Borders were designated for assignment to make room on the 25-man roster for first baseman/designated hitter Bucky Jacobsen and lefty reliever George Sherrill.

Seattle also activated catcher Miguel Olivo from the 15-day disabled list (kidney stone surgery) and put him behind the plate. Olivo went hitless in two at-bats, unless you count the pitch that hit him immediately before Leone teed off a fastball from Indians right-hander Jake Westbrook and sent the baseball into the upper deck in left field.

It wasn't the flight of the ball, or even where it landed, that pleased Leone the most. The best thing was seeing so many smiling faces in the home dugout after finishing his journey around the bases.

"I don't remember running around the bases," he said.

"I think I sprinted, like it was a double, or something. I was just glad to get into the dugout to see all the smiles and get congratulated."

It had been awhile since the Mariners (33-54) had anything to smile about.

The Mariners ended the first half of the season with a winless (0-9) road trip through St. Louis, Toronto and Chicago. Except for the day he joined the team -- on July 1 -- Leone hadn't experienced a victory since leaving the first-place Tacoma Rainiers.

The kid's first home run of his career was a timely one. "Those are the things we want to see," manager Bob Melvin said.

"He's a guy who has some power and we have been struggling with the power mode this year. It shows you the effect of a home run late in the game like that."

The 28-year-old Leone emerged as a potential star last season at Double-A San Antonio, where he was selected as the Texas League Player of the Year after hitting .288 with 21 home runs and 92 RBIs in 135 games. He added 21 home runs for Tacoma this season, earning his first promotion to the Majors.

"I guess that's what's going on," he said of the Mariners' youth movement.

"We'll see what I can do. I had no idea I would be called up and wasn't even sure I would be here after the break. But sure enough here I am and if I produce, I'm sure I'll be around for awhile."

Paul Molitor, the Mariners hitting coach, said the key to Leone's success would be maintaining a short swing that enables the head of the bat to stay in the hitting zone longer.

"Once in a while his swing gets long, but you can see how the ball jumps off his bat when he stays short," Molitor said.

"He has to learn the fine line between patience and aggressiveness and the first couple of at-bats (strikeouts) he had some good pitches and couldn't pull the trigger.

"But in his third at-bat, he was aggressive. He has been working to hit the ball up the middle and reacting in and tonight that's exactly what happened."

Westbrook blamed it on a bad pitch.

"The changeup to Olivo just got away from me and then a first-pitch fastball to Leone wasn't even close to where I wanted it," he said.

"It ran right over the middle of the plate, if not in, right on his barrel. I made a mistake and he did a good job of taking advantage of it, and that's the game right there."

Not quite. Pineiro still had to pitch a scoreless eighth inning and he retired the Indians in order.

Guardado worked the ninth inning, surrendering a two-out single to Casey Blake before retiring Jody Gerut on a short fly ball to right field.

It was Gerut who put the Indians in front by hitting a home run to right-center with one out in the second inning.

"It was a pitch down and away, exactly where I wanted it," Pineiro (5-10) said.

Guardado picked up his 16th save.

"We had forgotten what it was like to go out there and shake hands at the end of a game," Melvin said.

Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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