The Seattle Mariners headed to Beantown on Monday to take on the Boston Red Sox in the first game of a two-game series. Unfortunately, the M's were able to make much of a dent in Boston starter Jon Lester and ended up taking the 6-1 loss.
Seattle starter Jason Vargas was in trouble right from the first inning. Vargas issued a one-out walk to Dustin Pedroia, after which David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez clanged doubles off of the Green Monster to take a quick 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, Vargas served up home runs to Daniel Nava and Kelly Shoppach to make it 5-0 Boston.
The Mariners got very few scoring opportunities, but ran into bad luck when they did. Notably, Kyle Seager lined into a double play on a well-struck ball with two men on and no one out.
Vargas went seven innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and three walks.
Marlon Byrd drove in a sixth Red Sox run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning. Lester came out for the ninth inning to try to secure the shutout. He gave up a leadoff single to Ichiro Suzuki, struck out Jesus Montero and gave up a double down the left-field line to Justin Smoak that put runners at second and third base with one out. Seager grounded out to second base, but drove in Suzuki to avoid the shutout.
Lester ended up with a complete game, striking out six Mariners while limiting them to just eight hits and allowing no walks. When Lester struck out Alex Liddi to end things, it came on the first full count he has allowed all game.
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