A's Swept By Mariners

Seattle, WA (Sports Network) – Charlie Furbush made quite an impression on his new team, tossing a career-high five innings to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 7-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics. Making his first start with the Mariners since being acquired from the Tigers on July 30, Furbush (2-3) allowed one run on two hits and carried a perfect game through 4 1/3 frames.

Mike Carp, Casper Wells and Josh Bard each had a pair of RBI, while Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-5 and scored twice for the Mariners, who completed a three- game sweep of the A’s.

Gio Gonzalez (9-9) allowed six runs on 10 hits and four walks while striking out nine over 6 1/3 innings to suffer the loss. Josh Willingham belted a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to make things interesting, but Brandon League recorded the final two outs of the frame to earn his 26th save of the season.

Seattle, WA (Sports Network) – Casper Wells’ first home run as a Mariner proved to be the difference in Seattle’s 4-2 win over the Oakland Athletics. Wells’ two-run shot in the sixth inning made it 4-0 and helped Seattle win consecutive games for the first time since a three-game streak from July 3-5.

“We’ve thrown him right in there, he’s played every day so far,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of Wells. “I don’t anticipate him playing every single day, but we’re going to try and get him a good amount of playing time.”

Felix Hernandez (10-9) was credited with the win after holding the A’s to two runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings. Rich Harden (2-2), who was speculated to be heading to Boston near the trade deadline, surrendered four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings for Oakland, which had won five of seven before losing the first two meetings of this three-game set.

“He made two mistakes and it cost him four runs, the change-up on the last pitch he threw and the ball that Carp hit to left-center field, other than that, he was terrific again,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Harden.

The only runs the A’s managed came on Scott Sizemore’s home run to straightaway center in the seventh. Eric Sogard singled ahead of the blast. Oakland loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but Jeff Gray struck out Kurt Suzuki and Sogard to keep the Mariners in front. Suzuki swung at strike three before it hit him on his right shoulder. Brandon League hurled a 1-2-3 ninth to record his 25th save.

Mike Carp one-hopped the wall in left to plate Brendan Ryan and Dustin Ackley in the first inning.

Hernandez finished with nine strikeouts and reached double digits in wins for the fifth time in his career…Ackley posted his fifth triple in the third inning…Hideki Matsui had three of Oakland’s seven hits…Wells was acquired in a trade with Detroit over the weekend.

The Seattle Mariners have placed third baseman Chone Figgins on the disabled list as day-to-day with a sore right hip flexor. Figgins will miss Tuesday night's game against the Oakland Athletics.

Figgins left Monday's game against the Athletics early on. There remains mystery as to how exactly Figgins got injured, as it could be attributed to either his diving stop in the top of the first or his sprint around the bases during the Mariners' batting period in the bottom of the second.

Figgins was 1 for 1 on the night and scored one run. He did not return to the game after being pulled out, but thankfully the Mariners didn't need his help as they posted 13 hits in the first five innings to cruise to an 8-4 victory.

Figgins has been batting .188 on the season with one home run and 15 RBIs. The Mariners have promoted third baseman Kyle Seager from Triple-A Tacoma.

Seattle, WA (Sports Network) – Dustin Ackley hit a bases-loaded triple to highlight a five-run second inning that catapulted the Mariners over the Athletics, 8-4, in the opener of a three-game series. Brendan Ryan and Miguel Olivo each had three hits and knocked in a run for Seattle, which got 6 2/3 quality innings from rookie Blake Beavan (2-2) to win for the third time in five games.

Trevor Cahill (9-10) was tagged with seven runs on 12 hits in four-plus innings for the A’s, who had taken two of three from the Twins over the weekend.

“It just didn’t end up being a great game for us all the way around,” said A’s interim manager Bob Melvin. “We had the bases loaded, nobody out and then we don’t score, that took a little momentum away from us and we just didn’t play real crisply after that.”

More than the loss, the A’s revealed that shortstop Cliff Pennington was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis resulting from a dysfunctional nerve. He carried a 15-game hitting streak into the contest but was pulled in the sixth inning, having gone 0-for-2. Pennington is set to start medication and is listed as day-to-day, according to MLB.com.

Oakland had a chance to score immediately, loading the bases with nobody out in the first inning. But the A’s came up empty after Beavan struck out Josh Willingham and Ryan Sweeney before getting Conor Jackson to fly out.

“First three hitters I just wasn’t getting the ball down and hitting my spots where I wanted to, and they obviously made me pay for it,” Beavan said. “[I was] just fortunate with the defense and made some pitches when I needed to, to get out of it.”

Franklin Gutierrez plated the first run of the pivotal second frame with a run-scoring double, matching his RBI total for July. With the bases loaded later in the frame, Ryan singled to make it 2-0, and Ackley followed with a sinking liner in front of a diving Sweeney in right. The ball bounced over Sweeney’s glove and rolled to the wall for a bases-clearing triple.

Hideki Matsui got Oakland on the board in the third when his sacrifice fly plated Coco Crisp. The Mariners added a run in the fourth on Olivo’s run-scoring infield single, and Justin Smoak raced home on a wild pitch an inning later for a 7-1 cushion. Kurt Suzuki doubled in a run and scored in the seventh, and Smoak came in again in the bottom half on Ichiro Suzuki’s infield hit. Kurt Suzuki’s solo shot off Brandon League in the ninth capped the scoring.

Beavan has recorded a quality start in each of his first five outings…The A’s had 11 hits and extended their streak of eight of more hits to 17 games, an Oakland record…Seattle had 16 hits and went 7-for-20 with runners in scoring position.

Shortstop Cliff Pennington of the Oakland Athletics had a scary episode during Monday night's game against the Seattle Mariners. Pennington was having trouble moving muscles in his face, and had trouble even closing his eyes. He was taken out in the sixth inning and was listed as day-to-day.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Pennington has Bell's Palsy, which paralyzes one side of the face and prevents him from controlling his muscles. Pennington has taken medication that should hopefully limit the symptoms, but Bell's Palsy is notoriously unpredictable and could last days, weeks or months.  Pennington might still be able to play, but he has to be able to prove that he can open and close his eyes properly. Without being able to blink, his vision blurs up and he isn't able to properly field baseballs.

For more on Oakland baseball, head to Athletics Nation for more info.

(Sports Network) – The Oakland Athletics go for a third straight win this evening when they open a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

The A’s continued to swing the bats well this weekend, as they won the final two games of their three-game set with the Minnesota Twins, rallying for a victory in Sunday’s rubber match. Ryan Sweeney’s two-run double was part of a six-run third inning that lifted Oakland to a 7-3 win. Coco Crisp, Josh Willingham, Conor Jackson and Cliff Pennington added RBI singles during the third-inning rally, which included seven straight hits and pulled Oakland out of a 3-0 deficit.

The A’s, whose .316 average and .388 on-base-percentage are tops in the league since the All-Star break, collected 11 hits — the 16th game in a row they had at least eight to set a new franchise record. All 16 games have come after the break and the team is 10-6 in that stretch.

Brandon McCarthy (4-5) benefited from the outburst and earned the win despite giving up three runs in the first three innings, including two in the first. He threw six innings, giving up eight hits while striking out nine and walking zero.

“They hit some good pitches early on. I thought his stuff was pretty good the whole game,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin.

Hoping for some of that run support tonight will be righty Trevor Cahill, who was brilliant his last time out. Cahill snapped a four-decision losing streak on Wednesday against Tampa Bay, scattering four hits with four walks over 7 1/3 scoreless innings to run his record to 9-9 on the year to go along with a 3.58 ERA. Cahill has faced the Mariners eight times and is 2-3 with a 2.42 ERA.

Seattle, meanwhile, will rely on young right-hander Blake Beavan, who is 1-2 with a 3.04 ERA. Beavan hasn’t pitched since July 23 when he lost in Boston, allowing three runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. This will be his first-ever assignment against the A’s.

Beavan’s spot in the rotation seemed to be solidified over the weekend, as the Mariners sent starters Doug Fister and Erik Bedard away in trades. Fister was shipped to Detroit, while Bedard went to Boston.

The Mariners were denied a series win on Sunday, as they dropped the rubber match of their three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-1. Franklin Gutierrez had two hits and Casper Wells knocked in the lone run for Seattle, which has lost 14 times since the All-Star break. Jason Vargas (6-10) was pegged with the loss after giving up six runs — four earned — on nine hits over 5 1/3 innings.

“It’s been a rough stretch. I haven’t really pitched good since coming back from the break,” Vargas said. “Just not making the big pitches when I need to and kind of getting that pitch count up early. I just need to pitch better and keep the team in the ballgame, because right now I’m not doing that.”

Seattle has won six of its 10 matchups with the A’s.