TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays hit three home runs on Tuesday, none of them No. 50 for Jose Bautista.

So no milestone moment on this night, although the blasts by Vernon Wells, Edwin Encarnacion and Travis Snider were plenty for starter Marc Rzepczynski in a 5-3 victory over the dreadful Seattle Mariners.

While Bautista remained stuck at 49 in his bid to become the 26th player in big-league history to reach the 50-homer plateau, the Blue Jays (76-74) moved a step closer toward securing a .500-or-better season before a crowd of 12,158.

"Sometimes you can live by the home run and die by it, too, but we've played pretty good with it to be honest with you," said manager Cito Gaston. "Seventy-six wins is something that a lot of people didn't think we were going to win -- I never had any doubt that we'd win that many games -- but I just thought we'd have to win in the manner we have won."

Their latest victory came against a woefully limp lineup, as the nine Mariners (57-93) in the batting order had a combined 44 home runs, five less than Bautista. Beyond the top three of Ichiro Suzuki, Chone Figgins and Jose Lopez, their hitters were non-factors.

Suzuki was 4-for-4 with a walk, moving within three hits of 200 for a record 10th consecutive season. Figgins had two hits and an RBI, and Lopez added RBI singles in the first and fifth innings.

Rzepczynski (2-4), earning his first win since Aug. 13, was in trouble a couple of times but managed to avoid any big blows during his 6 1-3 innings.

That was especially the case in the third, as Suzuki and Figgins reached with one out and were balked to second and third when Rzepczynski got crossed up and didn't throw the ball after going through his full windup. He escaped unscathed when third baseman John McDonald fielded Lopez's grounder and threw out Suzuki at home before Justin Smoak struck out.

"After a bonehead play like that I was glad to get out of it," Rzepczynski said of his balk. "I've been a work in progress, I feel I've been getting stronger and stronger each outing, so just keep it going."

Big blows weren't a problem for the Blue Jays.

Bautista came to the plate in the first to chants of "MVP" and "Jose, Jose, Jose" sung to the tune of "Ole Ole Ole." With the count 3-0 against Luke French (4-6), he ripped a base hit to left and two pitches later, Wells cranked his 28th of the season to make it a 2-1 game.

Encarnacion led off the second by driving a ball off the foul pole for his 15th of the season, and in the fourth Snider crushed his 10th of the year over the wall in right centre, a two-run blast that made it 5-1.

He became the ninth Blue Jays player to reach double digits in home runs this year, one in which injury derailed his progress and kept him from solidifying his footing in the majors.

"Looking in the mirror, (I) understand there's definitely some things that need to improve to play at this level and be successful," said Snider. "That's what I'm taking to heart going into the off-season."

Rzepczynski left after a one-out walk in the seventh -- having allowed two runs on seven hits and three walks -- and was followed by 2-3 of an inning by Shawn Camp, a frame by Scott Downs and another by Kevin Gregg, who earned his 34th save in adventure-filled ninth to extend his career-high.

Matt Tuiasosopo reached on a double when his blooper fell in front of Snider, who called off shortstop Yunel Escobar. With two outs, Suzuki picked up his fourth hit when Gregg bobbled his little bouncer to put runners on the corners and Figgins followed with an RBI single.

"That was my mistake the whole way," Snider said. "I put my head down and started running and didn't look to see Escobar was camped under it and could have made a routine catch instead of making it a difficult play. Our closer has to go out there and throw 30 pitches instead of a three-out ninth-inning which would have been great for us and our bullpen."

Gregg then recovered to strike out Lopez and end the game.

"We will talk to Snider about that, if a guy is standing under the ball you don't run him off," said Gaston. "He wasn't even close to that ball. He just didn't judge it properly. That's knowing your teammate, Esky can really get out there and he's a real take-charge kind of guy."

Notes: Blue Jays pitching phenom Kyle Drabek (0-1) makes his home debut Wednesday against David Pauley (2-8) of the Mariners. ... Adam Lind had the day off after having some dental work. Manager Cito Gaston said he hoped Lind would be able to play Tuesday. ... Aaron Hill was back at second base for the Blue Jays after being hit in the arm by a pitch Friday in Boston and skipping the next two games. ... The Blue Jays signed a two-year extension with the triple-A Las Vegas 51s. They had hoped to find an affiliate closer to Toronto but could not. ... The Mariners feature a small handful of former Blue Jays, including reliever Brandon League, INF Chris Woodward, C Guillermo Quiroz and bullpen catcher Jason Phillips.