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Phillies take season-best win streak to Seattle in Ackley debut

Jun 17, 2011 - 2:54 PM (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Phillies have proven they can win at home, but will now take the majors' best record to the Emerald City when they begin a three-game interleague series tonight against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

The Phillies have won a season-high seven straight games and completed a four- game sweep of the Florida Marlins with Thursday afternoon's 3-0 victory behind Cliff Lee's two-hit shutout. Lee walked two batters, struck out four and helped his own cause with an RBI double for the NL East-leading Phillies, who went 9-2 on an 11-game homestand and won for the 10th time in 12 tries overall.

"Anytime you can go nine innings and they don't score, you've got to be happy with that," Lee said. "It feels good to give the team a chance to win and contribute."

Lee ended with two hits, while Ryan Howard homered and Jimmy Rollins drove in a run to keep Philadelphia five games ahead of Atlanta in the division standings. The Phillies are a dominant 28-12 in south Philly this season as opposed to their 16-14 mark away from Citizens Bank Park. They are also 10-5 this month.

Philadelphia will also visit St. Louis for three games on this six-game trek and is scheduled to send Roy Oswalt to the mound Friday. Oswalt was 0-4 with a 3.94 earned run average in six starts before finally ending his winless drought in Sunday afternoon's 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs. Oswalt allowed three runs in the first inning and did not allow anymore the rest of the way, lasting seven innings with five K's to run his record to 4-4 in 11 starts.

The right-hander is 2-2 in six road starts and will face Seattle for the third time in his career. Oswalt owns a 1-0 record with a 3.55 ERA in two lifetime appearances in this matchup.

Seattle salvaged the finale of a three-game series with the LA Angels of Anaheim by posting a 3-1 victory on Wednesday at Safeco Field. Carlos Peguero stroked a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh and Greg Halman gave Seattle some breathing room with a home run in the ninth.

"Unbelievable feeling. I wasn't sure that it was going out. I hit it pretty square, though. I was going hard out of the box because I wasn't sure if it was going to go over the fence, but I'm happy it did," Halman said about his homer.

Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins recorded two hits apiece for the Mariners, who have split their last eight games and sit just a half-game behind Texas for the top spot in the American League West standings. Ichiro has recorded five straight multi-hit games and his two stolen bases gave him 401 for his career in the major leagues. He also swiped 199 bags in Japan. Peguero is batting .314 with three homers and seven RBI in his last 11 games.

Erik Bedard started for the Mariners versus the Angels and hurled seven shutout innings for the win. David Pauley allowed a run in the eighth inning before Brandon League registered his 19th save in the ninth.

Mariners rookie Michael Pineda gets his first taste of the Phillies tonight and is 6-4 with a 2.72 earned run average through 13 starts. Pineda has pitched well in the majors, but is only 0-2 with a 4.07 ERA in his last four trips to the bump. The Mariners are 1-3 over that span.

Pineda, a right-hander, took the loss in Saturday's 8-1 defeat at the hands of the Detroit Tigers and surrendered six runs -- five earned -- and eight hits through 5 1/3 innings of work. On a positive note, the youngster has performed well in the Emerald City, going 3-1 in six starts at Safeco Field.

Seattle is expected to unveil prized second baseman Dustin Ackley tonight for his major league debut. The 2009 first-round draft choice was recalled from the club's Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma on Thursday, and was batting .303 with 57 runs scored, nine home runs and 35 RBI. Adam Kennedy is Seattle's everyday second baseman and will most likely move to third tonight.

"Obviously we've got a lot of young guys who have contributed," Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "Tonight is a good example. We expect Dustin to come up and fall into place and contribute as well."

The Phillies and Mariners are meeting for the first time since Seattle won two of three meetings back in 2005 in the Pacific Northwest. Philadelphia is 108-130 all-time in interleague play, while the Mariners own a solid 139-112 mark against the National League.