Dustin Ackley shines as Seattle Mariners defeat Oakland Athletics 4-2 – MLB Update
Seattle Mariners’ second baseman, Dustin Ackley was impressive right through the game as he went 2-for-3 with an average of .300 and hit one RBI in the Mariners’ 4-2 victory against the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum, Oakland on July 5.
Ichiro Suzuki was grounded out towards short-stop position, Adam Kennedy grounded out to first base and Justin Smoak struck-out swinging at the top of the first inning. Similarly, the Athletics’ batters also got out without adding any run as Jemile Weeks
singled off centre-field but Scott Sizemore struck-out looking and Coco Crisp grounded out towards first base at the bottom of the first inning.
The Mariners posted their initial run in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead when Ackley scored one run on the sacrifice fly of Carlos Peguero towards left-field. The pitchers controlled the scoring shots from the third to sixth inning of the game by throwing
accurately. At the bottom of the sixth inning, Ryan Sweeney was struck-out looking, Weeks grounded out to first base and Cliff Pennington flied out to centre-field.
Felix Hernandez permitted just one run on four hits in eight inning pitches and pitched the ball with an ERA of 3.22. He did not allow any walk and had 10 strike-outs in 122 pitches. Pennington said, “I didn't get a grip on the ball. I tried not to throw
it but I threw it away. We just can't do that. We have to play defence behind our guys to win ballgames.”
The Mariners’ manager Eric Wedge said, “I love the way our kids came back after they tied it up.”
In the seventh inning, the Mariners took a 2-0 lead when Ackley struck a solo homer towards centre-field. On the other side, the Athletics posted their initial run during the eighth inning to reduce their lead 2-1 when Suzuki hit a one-run homer to left-field.
The game was tied 2-all in the ninth inning when Weeks added a tie run on the single-run shot of Crisp to left-field.
The Mariners went ahead 4-2 in the extra 10th inning by posting two runs. Brendan Ryan hit a grounder towards second base and Franklin Gutierrez scored a tie-breaking run. The leading and the final run was taken by Ryan when Kennedy doubled towards
left-field.
The Mariners sealed the three-game series 2-0 after having an exciting win at Oakland.
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