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Hellickson stellar on mound as Rays blank M's

Aug 21, 2011 - 6:14 AM St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Jeremy Hellickson was magnificent on Saturday. The rookie right-hander pitched eight shutout innings to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to an 8-0 drubbing of the Seattle Mariners at Tropicana Field.

Hellickson (11-8) gave up six hits, fanned five and issued only one walk. Joel Peralta tossed the ninth.

"He pitched better tonight than his last time out," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "His fastball command was a lot better."

Evan Longoria had a two-run homer and four RBI, while Johnny Damon and Ben Zobrist collected three hits apiece for the Rays, who have taken the first two games of this three-game series and four in a row overall.

Dustin Ackley and Adam Kennedy cracked doubles for the Mariners, losers of four straight.

Charlie Furbush (3-5) gave up five runs on eight hits in just three innings of work. He struck out two and walked one.

"It was very different, obviously, than his last outing," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. "I just didn't feel like he did the same job with his fastball, and his secondary stuff was up a little bit."

Tampa Bay opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Damon ripped a one-out triple and Longoria followed with a majestic shot into the left field corner on a 3-0 pitch to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.

They tacked on three more in the third to increase their lead to 5-0. Desmond Jennings singled to begin the inning, stole second and came around to score on Damon's single. Zobrist ripped a double two batters later and B.J. Upton was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Sean Rodriguez slapped an RBI single to center and Zobrist crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Casey Kotchman.

Seattle threatened in the eighth inning. Trayvon Robinson led off the frame with a single to center and Ichiro Suzuki followed with a base hit to left to put runners on first and second with no outs. Franklin Gutierrez grounded into a fielder's choice and both runners advanced on a wild pitch by Hellickson to put men on second and third with one down. Hellickson regained his composure and got Ackley to fly out to right and Mike Carp to pop out to shortstop to end the inning.

The Rays essentially put the game away in the eighth, striking for three runs to make it 8-0. Kotchman walked to begin the frame and Kelly Shoppach ripped a double to right to put runners on second and third with no outs. Elliot Johnson slapped a single to right to score Kotchman for the first run of the inning. Later, Longoria came through with a two-run single.

Game Notes

Carp extended his hitting streak to 19 games...Tampa Bay has started a pitcher under the age of 30 in 725 consecutive games...Tampa Bay leads the season series 5-4...The Rays are 12-15 against the American League West, while Seattle is 16-23 against AL East competition....It was Longoria's 20th homer of the season.