Athletics 0 - 1 Mariners
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  for this game

King Felix helps Mariners sneak past A's

Apr 22, 2011 - 5:55 AM

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Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Adam Kennedy's solo home run in the fourth accounted for the only score in Seattle's 1-0 victory over Oakland in the opener of a four-game series.

Felix Hernandez (2-2) pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and three walks while fanning eight to give Seattle its third win in five games.

"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," said Seattle's manager, Eric Wedge.

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.

Kennedy's one-out solo shot to right in the fourth gave Seattle the only run it needed with Hernandez on the mound.

Hernandez left the game in the eighth with two outs, having allowed a single to Cliff Pennington and a walk to David DeJesus. Jamey Wright came in for relief and caused Conor Jackson to ground out to second on one pitch.

Brandon League entered the game in the ninth and allowed a leadoff single to Josh Willingham, who advanced to second on a Ryan Sweeney ground out.

League then got Kurt Suzuki to hit a pop up in foul territory to the first base side, where Kennedy made a running, over-the-shoulder catch for the second out. Mark Ellis then popped straight up to the catcher to give League his fourth save.

Oakland did not have a runner reach third base all game.

"Guys are battling, I know they are, but we got to find a different gear or something just to jumpstart the offense somehow," said A's manager, Bob Geren. "We're better than we're hitting, I know that, but we're not doing it. Performance is all that really matters, we got to get it done, we've got to do a better job getting runs somehow."

Game Notes

Hernandez is now 11-4 against Oakland for his career, including 2-0 this season...Oakland's starters have allowed only six earned runs in their last seven games...Oakland is 3-4 in those games.






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