Mariners 9, Yankees 2

NEW YORK — Dustin Ackley and the rest of the Seattle Mariners had the same thought as they piled up the hits Wednesday: Don’t stop.

By the time they were done, everyone was hpy to talk about the No. 17.

The Mariners snped their 17-game losing streak with a victory over New York, boosted by a season-high 17-hit attack that featured strong performances by Ichiro Suzuki and Ackley.

“It seemed like everything was clicking today,” Ackley said. “It’s a good feeling.”

Felix Hernandez pitched seven innings for his third straight win in the Bronx. Suzuki had four hits and scored two runs. Ackley tripled among his three hits and drove in three runs as the Mariners did something they failed to accomplish during the skid: They turned an opponent’s mistake into a big inning.

Seattle took 21 days worth of frustration out on three relievers, scoring five runs in the seventh inning — highlighted by Mike Carp’s bases-loaded triple — after Robinson Cano flubbed a flip to Derek Jeter at second base for an error.

“These guys haven’t felt good in a long time,” manager Eric Wedge said. “We’ve got a long flight, an off day tomorrow and this is a real big win for us. When you’ve got a monkey on your back that size, it’s damn hard to get it off.”

American League

White Sox 2, Tigers 1 at Chicago: Alejandro De Aza hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat of the season and Chicago beat Detroit.

Blue Jays 3, Orioles 0 at Toronto: Ricky Romero came within two outs of a complete game to win for the first time in five starts and Toronto beat Baltimore.

Red Sox 12, Royals 5 at Boston: David Ortiz hit a grand slam to c a five-run fourth inning carrying Boston over Kansas City.

Twins 7, Rangers 2 at Arlington, Texas: Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer homered to back a solid start by Brian Duensing for Minnesota’s victory over AL West-leading Texas.

National League

Astros 4, Cardinals 2 at St. Louis: Rookie Jose Altuve drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning with his third hit and Houston snped a five-game losing streak with a victory over St. Louis.

Giants 2, Phillies 1 at Philadelphia: Matt Cain (Houston High) pitched into the eighth inning to outduel Cole Hamels and lead San Francisco to a win over Philadelphia.

Mets 8, Reds 2 at Cincinnati: Lucas Duda took over for Carlos Beltran — off somewhere weighing a trade — and homered to help New York beat Cincinnati.

Braves 2, Pirates 1, (10 innings) at Atlanta: David Ross hit a bases-loaded single in the 10th inning and Atlanta beat Pittsburgh for its second straight victory in extra innings. Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm (Germantown High) allowed one run in seven innings.

Marlins 7, Nationals 5 at Washington: Javier Vazquez pitched seven strong innings as Florida beat Washington for its fourth straight win.

Brewers 2, Cubs 0 at Milwaukee: Prince Fielder hit his 23rd home run in Milwaukee’s victory over Chicago.

(Sports Network) – After an uncharacteristically wild outing from their ace,
the Seattle Mariners will try to avoid a fifth straight setback and salvage
the finale of their three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden
Yards.

Seattle lost the opener in 13 innings on Tuesday and was hoping to rebound
behind reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez on
Wednesday. However, he was tagged for four runs on seven hits and three walks
over five innings of a 4-2 setback.

Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins each had two hits for the Mariners, who have
lost four straight. Michael Saunders blasted his second home run of the season
in the loss.

Two former Mariners did the damage for the Orioles on Wednesday. Adam Jones
matched a career-high with four hits, one a triple, and drove in two runs,
while Chris Tillman gave up only one run over six innings for the win. Both
Jones and Tillman were part of the package the Mariners dealt to the Orioles
for Erik Bedard in February of 2008.

“Tillman did a good job keeping us off-balance … but he left a few pitches
up that we didn’t do anything with,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said.

Jones is 7-for-10 with five RBI in this series.

“He’s certainly been on top of his game lately,” Orioles manager Buck
Showalter said of Jones. “He’s letting the game come to him and trusting in
his abilities more.”

Baltimore, which lost four in a row and six of seven coming into this series,
was without Nick Markakis, who was kept away from the team due to flu-like
virus.

Seattle won six of nine versus Baltimore last year, including a three-game
sweep of the first series played between the teams. The O’s will try to
reverse the tables tonight with their first sweep of the Mariners since taking
all four games of a set at Camden Yards on ril 4-7, 2008.

Given the task is rookie Zach Britton, who will try to shake off just his
second big league loss this evening in his first ever start versus the
Mariners.

The 23-year-old had won three consecutive starts before taking the loss versus
the Rays on Friday. The 5 1/3-inning outing was the shortest of Britton’s
career as he gave up three runs on four hits in a 6-2 setback.

“His command wasn’t what it’s been,” Showalter said of his starter.

The left-hander is 5-2 with a 2.93 earned run average in seven starts and 3-1
with a 2.52 ERA in four at home.

Seattle starter Jason Vargas takes aim at a third straight winning start this
evening.

Vargas ended a personal 13-game winless stretch (0-9) with a victory on ril
29, then made it two in a row on Thursday versus Texas. The 28-year-old
pitched a season-best 7 2/3 innings and allowed a run on six hits.

Vargas, who will be pitching on an extra day of rest, is 2-2 with a 4.68
ERA in seven starts this year, while the lefty is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in four
against Baltimore.

The Sports Network

LARRY LARUE; Staff writer |
• Published May 08, 2011

SEATTLE – After a week of tight games, the Seattle Mariners were probably due a laugher, although they probably would have preferred to be the team doing the laughing.

Instead, they fell behind the Chicago White Sox by a run in the first inning and, five runs and an awful lot of hits later, the Mariners were quietly rushed out of Safeco Field with a 6-0 loss.

How one-sided was this one? Chicago piled up 17 hits, the Mariners managed all of three – all in different innings.

“They’re an aggressive team, and I pitch to contact,” Doug Fister said. “The game plan was to use that to our advantage, let the defense make the plays behind me. It didn’t play out that way.”

Fister allowed 14 of those White Sox hits, in 52/3 innings, and while he gave up five runs it might not have been his struggle that did Seattle in.

That honor went to Gavin Floyd.

Chicago’s starting pitcher wasn’t the likeliest man to shut down Seattle – the Mariners position players were batting a combined .297 lifetime against him. Then Floyd threw eight zeros on the board and walked off with his fourth win.

Against American League teams in his first six games, Floyd’s earned run average was 4.39. Against the Mainers: 0.00.

“We never got anything going today,” manager Eric Wedge said. “Not taking anything away from their guy, but we didn’t do a very good job at all. We’ve done a better job of putting at-bats together, but today was the flip side of that.”

Then there was the Chicago offense – batting .202 in its last 24 games.

That’s the sweetness of baseball. On any given night, all the numbers we so lovingly keep track of can mean nothing.

Just ask Fister about the Chicago offense, or the Mariners’ hitters about Floyd’s pitching.

“I live or die by contact,” Fister said, “and when you do that some balls falls in, some get through. My job is to keep the other guys off balance, and I didn’t do that tonight. I didn’t command the strike zone.”

While the White Sox hit their share of balls hard, at least a third of their hits were of the bloop or bleeder variety. Adam Dunn, the big designated hitter, had a pair of high pop flies drop for hits – and the hardest ball he hit all night was run down in center by Michael Saunders for a sacrifice fly.

Then again, it could have been much worse for Seattle – Fister got three double plays in the first four innings.

“I was kind of worried about it in the first couple of innings, when we had 12 hits and one run,” Ozzie Guillen said of his team. “Then a couple innings later we got three hits with two outs and got a couple runs.”

The Sox got two runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth, all four off Fister, and this one was gone. Chicago had five runs at that point, the Mariners hadn’t pushed a man as far as third base.

They never did.

With a crowd of 26,288 on Little League night, fans had to save their cheering for the bullpen. Aaron Laffey went 1 scoreless innings, then rookie Dan Cortes was called into his first game since being brought up from Tacoma on ril 25.

“I was nervous when I got the call to warm up,” Cortes said. “I did my breathing technique and calmed down.”

A right-hander clocked last year at 100 mph in minor league games, Cortes threw his first pitch in this one at 91 mph, just trying to get a strike.

“I remember what David Aardsma told me, ‘Throw strike one, then you’re in the hitter’s head,’ ” Cortes said.

After that, the velocity climbed and topped out at 98 mph. He allowed one hit, a single, and held Chicago scoreless in the eighth inning.

“I don’t think he could have done a better job for not being out there in that period of time,” Wedge said. “He was under control. He didn’t try to come out and blow them away. He pitched.”

The loss cost Seattle an opportunity to get to .500 for the first time since it was 2-2 four games into the season. When one man – Ichiro – had two-thirds of their hits, the Mariners weren’t likely to do much damage.

Which may beg the question, how have these Mariners been winning?

At night’s end, four starters were batting under .210 and three of those were under .200. Against Chicago, the Mariners struck out seven times and went a perfect 0-for-4 with men in scoring position.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners

(Sports Network) – The Seattle Mariners got a terrific start from Felix Hernandez to open this series. Tonight, the Mariners hope for the same from Michael Pineda as they continue their four-game set against the Oakland Athletics at the Coliseum.

Hernandez (2-2) pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and three walks while fanning eight in Seattle’s 1-0 win. Adam Kennedy accounted for the game’s only scoring with a solo home run, as the Mariners won for the third time in their last five chances.

“He was special tonight, he commanded the ballgame all night long, made pitches when he had to. His stuff is as good as anybody’s in the game, tonight, he really stepped up for us. We took him as far as we could take him, just a great effort,” Seattle manager Eric Wedge said of his ace.

Brandon McCarthy (1-1) took the loss despite allowing one run on four hits and one walk while striking out six through eight innings for the A’s, who have lost two in a row.

Tonight, Pineda takes the ball trying for his third straight win. On Sunday Pineda held the Kansas City Royals to a run and three hits over six innings. He also struck out five, but walked four batters and improved to 2-1 on the year to go along with a 2.33 ERA.

“He’s very poised for a young starting pitcher at the big league level for the first time, and he’s shown the ability to make adjustments out there as well,” Wedge said. “If you go through something that doesn’t turn out the way you want and you learn from it and make adjustments the next time, that says a lot. Because it’s a constant game of adjustments at this level.”

Getting the call for the A’s tonight will be Tyson Ross, who will be making his first start of the year on his 24th birthday. Ross nearly won a rotation spot out of spring training, but was beaten out by McCarthy. He heads to the hill tonight, though, in place of the injured Dallas Braden.

Ross has made three relief pearances for the A’s and is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA. He made two starts last year for Oakland and lost both of them, while surrendering six runs in 7 2/3 innings of those outings.

“Last year, I learned I can pitch here at this level,” said Ross, who was 1-4 with a 5.49 overall last season. “I’ve watched a lot of guys and how they attack hitters, and I’m hoping to put that into practice.”

Seattle took two of three from the A’s to open the year, but Oakland has won eight of the last 12 in the series, including five of the last six at Safeco.

The Sports Network

SEATTLE — Facing the hard-throwing Felix Hernandez on a chilly night is no hitter’s idea of a good time.

In that context, the A’s meager output against the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Thursday night is no big surprise.

But the A’s are out of mulligans after a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. Regardless of weather conditions or any other variables, they need to take care of business against cellar-dwelling teams such as the Mariners, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 7-13.

Oakland mustered just five hits in losing the opener of a four-game series. After finishing with the Mariners, the A’s head to Anaheim for a three-game series against the Angels, who are in sole possession of first place in the American League West.

The first-pitch temperature at Safeco Field was 51 degrees, and the A’s bats never did thaw out against Hernandez (2-2), who threw a five-hitter against Oakland on opening night. His only two wins of the season are against the A’s, and he’s won 10 of his past 12 decisions against Oakland.

The Mariners — who came in ranked last in the American League with a .226 team batting average — didn’t fare much better against A’s starter Brandon McCarthy (1-1).

They didn’t need to.

McCarthy, a pleasant surprise for the A’s in the back of the rotation, was terrific once again, allowing just four hits in a complete-game effort and seemingly getting stronger as

the game went on.

But his one mistake was all it took to doom the A’s.

Seattle first baseman Adam Kennedy hit a 3-1 pitch for a towering homer to right field to account for the game’s only run in the fourth inning.

Kennedy, who hit .289 as a utility infielder for the A’s in 2009, teamed with another former A’s player Jack Cust, as the Mariners’ 3-4 hitters.

The A’s didn’t advance a runner as far as third base. And when they did hit the ball hard, they managed to make more outs.

After leadoff man Josh Willingham singled in the seventh, Ryan Sweeney hit a liner to third base, which Chone Figgins snagged and threw to first to double up Willingham easily.

A’s manager Bob Geren talked before the game of the importance of a seven-game road trip against AL West foes.

“It’s an early run through the division, but you want to fare well,” Geren said. “It seems year to year whoever does best in the division ends up winning.” Hernandez allowed four hits over 72/3 innings, striking out eight and walking three.

Willingham reached in the ninth on a leadoff single against Brandon League. He advanced to second on Sweeney’s ground out but was stranded.

A’s first baseman Daric Barton was a late scratch from the lineup because of illness, though he struck out as a pinch hitter in the eighth.

Conor Jackson, originally scheduled to play left field, switched to first base, and Sweeney was inserted in left.

Oakland could have used all the thump it could muster against Hernandez. But regular designated hitter Hideki Matsui was out of the lineup. Geren called it a regular day off for Matsui and said Matsui was fine physically.

Matsui came in 6 for 29 (.207) against Hernandez for his career.

Willingham served as DH.

FRIday’s game
A’s (Tyson Ross 1-1) at Seattle (Michael Pineda 2-1), 7:10 p.m., CSNCA

SEATTLE — Facing the hard-throwing Felix Hernandez on a chilly night is no hitter’s idea of a good time.

In that context, the A’s meager output against the reigning American League Cy Young winner Thursday night was no big surprise.

But the A’s are out of mulligans after a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

Regardless of weather conditions or any other variables, they need to take care of business against cellar-dwelling teams such as the Mariners, who entered Thursday tied with the New York Mets for the major leagues’ worst record at 6-13.

Oakland mustered just five hits in losing the opener of a four-game series. After finishing with the Mariners, the A’s head to Anaheim for a three-game series against the hot Angels, who came into Thursday in sole possession of first place in the American League West.

The first-pitch temperature at Safeco Field was 51 degrees, and the A’s bats never thawed against Hernandez (2-2), who had thrown a five-hitter in Oakland on opening night. His two wins of the season are against the A’s, and he’s won 10 of his past 12 decisions against Oakland.

The Mariners — who came in ranked last in the American League with a .226 team batting average — didn’t fare much better against A’s starter Brandon McCarthy (1-1).

They didn’t need to.

McCarthy, a pleasant surprise for the A’s in the back of the rotation, was terrific once again, allowing just four hits in a

complete-game effort and seemingly getting stronger as the game went on.

His one mistake was all it took to doom the A’s.

Seattle first baseman Adam Kennedy hit a 3-1 pitch for a towering homer to right field for the game’s only run.

Kennedy, who hit .289 as a utility infielder for the A’s in 2009, teamed with another former Athletic, Jack Cust, as the Mariners’ 3-4 hitters on Thursday.

The A’s didn’t advance a runner as far as third base all night. And when they did hit the ball hard, they managed to make more outs.

After leadoff man Josh Willingham reached in the seventh, Ryan Sweeney hit a liner to third base, which Chone Figgins snagged and threw to first to double up Willingham easily.

A’s manager Bob Geren talked before the game of the importance of a seven-game road trip strictly against AL West foes.

“It’s an early run through the division, but you want to fare well,” Geren said. “It seems year to year whoever does best in the division ends up winning.”

Hernandez allowed four hits over 72/3 innings, striking out eight and walking three.

Willingham reached in the ninth on a leadoff single against Brandon League. He advanced to second on Sweeney’s groundout but was stranded there.

A’s first baseman Daric Barton was a late scratch from the lineup because of illness, though he struck out as a pinch hitter in the eighth.

Conor Jackson, originally scheduled to play left field, switched to first base, and Sweeney was inserted in left field.

Oakland could have used all the thump it could muster against Hernandez. But regular designated hitter Hideki Matsui was out of the lineup. Geren called it a regular day off for Matsui and that Matsui was fine physically.

Matsui came in 6 for 29 (.207) against Hernandez for his career. Willingham served as the DH.