The story appears on

Page B14

June 21, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsBaseball

Vargas tosses gem, fires M's past Phils

JASON Vargas outdueled ace Cole Hamels with a scintillating pitching performance as the Seattle Mariners took down the Major League-best Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 in Seattle on Sunday.

Vargas had six strikeouts and allowed just three hits in a complete game that denied Hamels (9-3) a major league-leading 10th win of the season, and the Mariners topped the Phillies for the second time in three games of their interleague series.

The two defeats are the only losses in the last 10 games for Philadelphia (45-28).

"This is a big wake-up call for fans that aren't quite into it yet," Seattle shortstop Brendan Ryan told reporters. "I don't know what you're waiting for now. Two of three from the best team in baseball - I mean, that's enough for me."

Seattle (37-35) outlasted the left-hander Hamels with an RBI single from Justin Smoak in the sixth inning and a run-scoring single by Adam Kennedy in the seventh where Hamels was relieved after 6 1/3 innings, having yielded seven hits.

Vargas (5-4), who needed only 119 pitches for the win, was visited on the mound by manager Eric Wedge after allowing a two-out single in the ninth.

"That was the first time I had the manager come out in the ninth and leave me in," said Vargas, who got the next batter to fly out for the game's final out.

"It's a nice feeling that he has that confidence in me to leave me out there to finish my game."

The Mariners' latest win pulled the team within a half-game of the American League West-leading Texas Rangers who lost to the Atlanta Braves 2-4 on Sunday.

Elsewhere in interleague play, it was: Indians 5, Pirates 2 (in 11 innings); Angels 7, Mets 3; Reds 2, Blue Jays 1; Orioles 7, Nationals 4; Red Sox 12, Brewers 3; Rays 2, Marlins 1; Twins 5, Padres 4; Cardinals 5, Royals 4; Tigers 9, Rockies 1; Athletics 2, Giants 1; White Sox 8, Diamondbacks 2; and Yankees 10, Cubs 4.

In the day's only National League game, it was Dodgers 1, Astros 0.

Meanwhile, the first-place Cleveland Indians fired their hitting coach on Sunday following a recent offensive slump that has loosened their grip atop the AL Central division, the team said.

Jon Nunnally, who was named hitting coach before the 2010 season, will be replaced by Bruce Fields, it said in a statement.

Fields is in his sixth season in the Indians organization, having been a minor league hitting coordinator since 2007.

 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend