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Thursday, Apr. 12 3:35pm ET
Mariners winning with blue-collar baseball
RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – The Seattle Mariners not only swept the Oakland Athletics for the first time since 1993, they ended Tim Hudson's 10-start unbeaten streak.

Edgar Martinez
Edgar Martinez, right, is congratulated after connecting for a homer on Thursday.

"It's unbelievable," Seattle manager Lou Pinella said after the Mariners' 7-3 victory Thursday. "We just played good baseball this series. We didn't do anything fancy. We just played blue-collar baseball."

At 7-2, the Mariners are off to the best start in the franchise's 25-season history. The A's, who edged Seattle for the American League West title last season, lost their fourth in a row and dropped to 2-7, their worst start since going 2-10 in 1998.

Oakland scored just four runs in the three games.

"The fact of the matter is -- we've put ourselves where we are," A's manager Art Howe said. "We have to find a way out of it."

Hudson (1-1) was 20-6 for the A's last season and had been 8-0 in nine regular-season starts since losing to Cleveland last Aug. 23. He also lost to the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the AL division series.

He allowed five runs in the third, giving up a three-run homer to Edgar Martinez.

"You never know what's going to happen out there, sometimes," Hudson said. "Maybe I was trying too hard, putting a little too much effort into it. Maybe I was overthrowing a bit."

Hudson allowed five runs, six hits and four walks in 2 1/3 innings, matching his second-shortest outing in the major leagues. His shortest came last April 15, when he went just 1 2/3 innings in the A's 14-2 defeat against Boston.

"This is the major leagues. You're not going to dominate every outing," Hudson said. "They're going to get you sometimes. They're going to get you even when you're throwing well."

Jamie Moyer (1-0) allowed three runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He has won five consecutive starts at Oakland since July 15, 1997.

The last time the Mariners swept the A's was Sept. 24-26, 1993 in the Kingdome. It was Seattle's first three-game sweep at Oakland.

Martinez homered off Hudson in Seattle's five-run third inning following singles by Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Cameron.

Hudson threw a run-scoring wild pitch and Carlos Guillen had a run-scoring double that made it 5-1. Mark Guthrie then relieved.

"We beat a tough pitcher," said Boone, who went 3-for-5. "He's no fun to face, but we got to him early and then he lost his control a little bit."

Eric Chavez hit his first home run of the season in the second inning for a 1-0 lead and added a run-scoring single in the third.

Adam Piatt's sacrifice fly narrowed the score to 5-3.

Cameron hit a solo home run in the sixth and Piatt made a run-scoring error in right field during the inning.

Game notes
The A's have scored just one earned run off an opposing bullpen this season. ... The A's have issued eight intentional walks and lead the AL. ... Howe is three victories shy of 400 with Oakland. ... Martinez is batting .556 against the A's this season with two home runs and six RBI.

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RECAPS
Seattle 7
Oakland 3

Boston 8
Baltimore 2

Cleveland 5
Detroit 3

Kansas City 0
Toronto 0

Anaheim 13
Texas 3

Colorado 6
St. Louis 4

Milwaukee 12
Houston 4

San Diego 8
San Francisco 3

Cincinnati 11
Pittsburgh 6

NY Mets 1
Atlanta 0

Los Angeles 5
Arizona 4





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