MAJOR LEAGUES
Felix Hernandez took a shutout into the ninth inning and Dustin Ackley and Abraham Almonte hit home runs as the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 in Major League Baseball on Saturday.
Hernandez (2-0) retired the first 11 batters on the way to his 16th career win over the Athletics, his most against any team. Hernandez walked one and struck out eight while allowing a run on six hits over 8-1/3 innings.
Photo: AFP
Fernando Rodney got the final two outs to record his first save with the Mariners.
Dan Straily (0-1) allowed three runs on six hits over his six innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
Straily carried a shutout into the fifth inning, before Ackley’s towering two-run shot gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead. With two outs, Almonte drove Straily’s 1-0 pitch even deeper into the right field bleachers.
The way Hernandez was pitching, the run support was more than enough.
Jed Lowrie, who hit a home run leading off the ninth, broke up Hernandez’s no-hit bid with a two-out single in the fourth.
In Toronto, R.A. Dickey and three relievers combined for a shutout and Jose Bautista and Melky Cabrera homered as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 4-0.
2012 National League Cy Young winner Dickey (1-0) gave up five hits in 6-2/3 innings, walked one and struck out six.
In Cleveland, Kyle Gibson limited Cleveland to one run in his season debut after Brian Dozier led off the game with a home run, leading Minnesota to a 7-3 win over the Cleveland Indians and giving Twins manager Ron Gardenhire his 1,000th career victory.
Gibson (1-0) allowed three hits in five-plus innings as the Twins ended their seven-game losing streak against the Indians.
In other American League games on Saturday, the Detroit Tigers edged the Baltimore Orioles 7-6, the Kansas City Royals topped the Chicago White Sox 4-3, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers 5-4 and the Los Angeles Angels downed the Houston Astros 5-1.
In the NL, Yadier Molina hit his second homer of the season and Jhonny Peralta added a late two-run shot as the St Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1.
Molina finished 2 for 4 and his solo homer in the sixth gave the Cardinals plenty of cushion as they bounced back from a 12-2 loss on Friday night by jumping on Pittsburgh ace Francisco Liriano (0-1) early.
St Louis used a three-run first inning to put the Pirates in an early hole then held on as Joe Kelly (1-0) wiggled his way out of trouble. The right-hander worked 5-1/3 innings, walking four and striking out four in his first start of the season.
The Pirates left 11 runners stranded on base, including seven in the first four innings.
Jose Fernandez struck out eight in 6-2/3 innings while lowering his ERA to 0.71, as the Miami Marlins won again, beating the punchless San Diego Padres 5-0.
The Marlins improved to 5-1, their best start since 2009, while Fernandez (2-0) improved his career record at home to 11-0.
Madison Bumgarner struck out 10 while working into the seventh inning and the San Francisco Giants hit three home runs in a 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Elsewhere, the New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-3, the Philadelphia Phillies shut out the Chicago Cubs 2-0, the Atlanta Braves crushed the Washington Nationals 6-2 and the Colorado Rockies were 9-4 winners over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In interleague play, the Milwaukee Brewers narrowly defeated the Boston Red Sox 7-6.
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