By Tim Booth

SEATTLE — Dustin Ackley continued his hitting tear with a pair of extra-base hits, including a bases-loaded triple, rookie righty Blake Beavan escaped early trouble to pitch well into the seventh and the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 8-4 on Monday night.

Ackley now has 19 extra-base hits in his first 37 games. It’s the second-highest total for any Mariners rookie in their first 50 games. Ackley passed Ken Griffey Jr.’s total of 18 with his triple in the second and a double in the fourth. Alvin Davis had 26 extra-base hits in his first 50 games during the 1984 season when he was the AL rookie of the year.

Ackley led a barrage of 16 hits that knocked Oakland starter Trevor Cahill (9-10) out after just four innings, his second shortest outing of the season.

Beavan (2-2) escaped a bases-loaded, none out jam in the first inning without giving up a run and then held the A’s to just one hit over the next five innings.

Ackley wasn’t alone in making Cahill’s night miserable. Brendan Ryan had three hits before the sixth inning, newcomer Casper Wells had a pair of singles and Franklin Gutierrez had an RBI double as part of Seattle’s big second inning.

But the key hit came from Ackley, the Mariners top prospect that has done nothing to dispel that belief since being called up in late June.

With one out in the second and two runs already in, Ackley hit a sinking liner to right field. Oakland’s Ryan Sweeney charged the line drive but his sliding attempt was well short and he failed to knock the ball down, watching is bounce all the way to the wall. Ackley raced around to third with his fourth triple, clearing the bases to give Seattle a 5-0 lead.

Miguel Olivo added an RBI single in the fourth and Justin Smoak scored on a wild pitch in the fifth as Seattle won for just the third time in 22 games.

Because of the way Beavan has pitched since being called up from Triple-A, the Mariners were able to unload starters Doug Fister and Erik Bedard before the trade deadline. Beavan didn’t have results to show for it losing his last two decisions, but both times pitching into the seventh and giving up just three earned runs.

With Fister now gone, Beavan stepped in and took his starting spot on Monday night and won for the first time since his debut July 3 against San Diego. Beavan allowed three straight singles to start the game, but then struck out Josh Willingham and Sweeney looking before getting Conor Jackson to fly out to left to end the threat.

After the first, Beavan allowed just one hit — a double by Willingham in the third — until the seventh inning when the A’s got another run off the young righty. Beavan left with two outs in the seventh after throwing 113 pitches. He was charged with three earned runs, struck out three and walked two.

While Beavan impressed, Cahill continued to regress as Oakland started a brutal nine-game road trip to Seattle, Tampa Bay and Toronto. He lost for the fifth time in his last six decisions and in those five losses, his ERA is 9.24. In his last start, Cahill stemmed the losing streak with 7 1/3 shutout innings against Tampa Bay, but was rocked for 12 hits in just four-plus innings by the offensively challenged Mariners.

Oakland’s Cliff Pennington saw his 15-game hitting streak end after going 0 for 2 and being replaced by Eric Sogard in the sixth inning. Kurt Suzuki added a solo homer leading off the ninth.

Comments

comments