Seattle ? Raul Ibanez drove in four runs with a pair of doubles against his former team, leading Paul Byrd and the Kansas City Royals over the faltering Seattle Mariners 5-1 Friday night.

A crowd of 45,260 watched the third-place Mariners lose for the fifth time in seven games.

Ibanez, who left Seattle and signed with the Royals as a minor league free agent after the 2000 season, doubled to center field in the first and fifth innings.

Byrd (15-10) beat Seattle for the second time this season and improved his career record to 3-0 against the Mariners.

Bret Boone accounted for the Mariners’ run with his 22nd homer in the second.

Byrd was taken out after giving up two-out singles to Mike Cameron and Carlos Guillen in the eighth. In 7 2-3 innings, he allowed one run on 10 hits and two walks, with three strikeouts.

Byrd broke a personal three-game losing streak with his first victory since July 29. Jason Grimsley recorded four outs for his first save of the season.

The Royals, who had lost three in a row and six out of seven, got two runs in the first on Carlos Beltran’s single and Mike Sweeney’s walk off Freddy Garcia (14-10) followed by Ibanez’s double.

Kansas City made it 4-1 in the fifth on a single by Beltran, Sweeney’s single off Garcia’s glove and another double by Ibanez.

Chuck Knoblauch homered for the Royals in the ninth.

Garcia, Seattle’s No. 1 starter, allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks in seven innings. He is 3-5 with a 6.18 ERA in 10 starts since the All-Star break.

The Mariners were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They’re 0-for-21 since Desi Relaford’s RBI double Tuesday night in Minnesota.

Sweeney went 1-for-3 with a walk to keep his AL-leading average at .344, two points ahead of Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees.

Notes: Ibanez is hitting .500 (7-for-14) with two homers and six RBIs against the M’s. Against Garcia, he is 5-for-7 (.714) lifetime. The Royals are now 4-2 against Garcia. They’re the only team with a winning record against him. Byrd surrendered his 30th homer in the season, the second most in the AL. Ramon Ortiz of Anaheim has given up 35. Byrd has a 1.72 ERA against Seattle this season and 1.46 in his career. The Royals are 2-2 against the Mariners this season. They were 3-6 against Seattle in 2001, when the Mariners tied the major league record with 116 wins.