White Sox Shutout Mariners, Win 6-0
SEATTLE (AP) -- Gavin Floyd held the Seattle Mariners to three singles in eight innings and the bottom third of the White Sox batting order went 10 for 12 in Chicago's 6-0 victory Saturday night.
Floyd (4-2) struck out six and walked two. Only two Mariners advanced to second base, none after the third inning.
Floyd has one career shutout - albeit a five-inning outing. But after 100 pitches, manager Ozzie Guillen used Tony Pena to finish up in the ninth.
It was the second shutout of the season for the White Sox. The Mariners have been blanked three times.
The bottom three White Sox hitters - Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham and Brent Morel - combined to score four runs and drive in two. Rios was 4 for 4. Entering the game, the three had a combined .192 average.
Adam Dunn had two hits and two RBIs.
Ichiro Suzuki had two of the Mariners' three hits. It was his AL-leading 16th multihit game, the 707th of his career.
Doug Fister (2-4) took the loss, giving up five runs and 14 hits. The Mariners record for hits allowed is 15 by Greg Hibbard on May 24, 1994, in six innings against Oakland.
However, Fister did a masterful job of somehow keeping his team in the game early. Three batters into the fifth inning, he had allowed 11 hits but just one run. He kept the White Sox in check with three double plays in the first four innings.
In the first, after Alexei Ramirez bounced into a double play, the White Sox rallied for a run. Dunn looped a two-out double into shallow left field. He scored on a single to center by Paul Konerko, who was then caught in a rundown between first and second.
A fine defensive effort by Fister in the third took him out of a brewing jam. Beckham opened with a single. Then on Morel's grounder toward second, Beckham jumped over the ball, distracting second baseman Adam Kennedy. It got past Kennedy for a single and Beckham raced to third with nobody out.
Mariners manager Eric Wedge argued for interference, to no avail.
After a shallow popout to left by Juan Pierre, Ramirez broke his bat on an inside fastball. Fister came off the mound to snag the lazy liner. He then rose to his knees to double off Morel at first.
Again in the fourth, Dunn and Konerko opened with singles. But Fister struck out Carlos Quentin and induced A.J. Pierzynski to hit into a double play.
However, things began to unravel in the fifth for Seattle. Rios, Beckham and Morel singled to load the bases with none out. Fister hit Pierre with a pitch to force in a run and Dunn lined a sacrifice fly to center, making it 3-0.
Beckham and Morel had two-out RBI hits in the sixth, chasing Fister. Michael Saunders took a home run away from Pierzynski with a leap over the center-field wall.
Pinch-hitter Mark Teahen drove in the final run in the ninth with a single to center.
NOTES: White Sox RHP Jake Peavy's long road back from right shoulder surgery could reach a big league mound by next week. He is tentatively scheduled to start Wednesday against the Angels. "That's a decision, I don't want to say it's a tough one, but it's a delicate one," Guillen said. "We have to be careful how we're going to do it and when. What's the plan? We have to make a move when he comes off. Who's that going to be? It's a process. We have to be very careful about it." ... Mariners ailing RHP David Aardsma, on the DL since opening day, had his right forearm tighten on him Friday while playing catch so the club had him undergo an MRI. "We still don't think it's anything serious, but we want to take every precaution," Wedge said.
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