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Hernandez stellar as Mariners top A's

Apr 17, 2008 - 5:33 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND (Ticker) - Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez continued his mastery of the Oakland Athletics at McAfee Coliseum.

Hernandez struck out a season-high eight in pitching his first complete game of the campaign to lead the Mariners to a 4-2 victory over the Athletics on Wednesday night.

It marked the fifth consecutive victory over Oakland for Hernandez (2-0), who went 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA against the Athletics in 2007.

The 22-year-old righthander had a stretch where he retired eight consecutive batters before Jack Cust opened the bottom of the seventh with a single to left field.

"It was a big game," Hernandez said. "In the eighth, (manager John McLaren) asked me, 'How you feel?' I said, 'I'm good. I can come back.'"

The eighth was the key inning for Hernandez, who allowed to the first two batters to reach base. However, Hernandez came back with his biggest pitch of the night when got Mark Ellis to hit a comebacker to the mound that he turned into a double play.

"When I got that ground ball and made that double play, that was the killer for them," Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, it was a reversal of an early-season trend for A's starter Joe Blanton (1-3). Blanton had allowed just one run over the first four innings of his four starts before surrendering three to the Mariners in the first inning.

After allowing a run in the third, Blanton held Seattle scoreless over the next five innings. The hefty righthander tossed a season-high eight innings despite surrendering a career high-tying 12 hits.

"I think I threw a lot of fastballs early, and after that, I tried to throw more offspeed early because they were being so aggressive," Blanton said. "I think that was the biggest adjustment, just getting them off that and using it later."

The Mariners wasted little time getting on the board, sending seven batters to the plate and scoring three runs in the first inning.

Ichiro Suzuki opened the frame with a single to left field and, after an infield out, Raul Ibanez produced an RBI single. Adrian Beltre then doubled to right-center field and Jose Vidro capped the scoring with a two-run double to left-center for a 3-0 lead.

The Mariners put the leadoff batter on in each of the first three innings and had a runner on base in seven of eight innings against Blanton.

After the Athletics scored an unearned run in the second inning, the Mariners made it 4-1 in the third when Ibanez led off with a single into right-center field and scored on Beltre's double into the left field corner.