Oakland, CA (My Sportsbook) - Dana Eveland hurled seven shutout innings and the Oakland Athletics blanked the Seattle Mariners, 2-0, in the opener of a three-game set.

Eveland (9-8) gave up seven hits and matched a season-high with seven strikeouts without issuing a walk. The rookie southpaw is 2-0 with four no- decisions over his last six starts.

"I felt real confident coming into today pitching against a team I've beaten three times already," Eveland said. "They have two tough outs in their lineup and fortunately for me they're both left-handed hitters. I feel pretty good against lefties."

Travis Buck hit a solo home run and Kurt Suzuki drove in the other run for the A's, who have put together a good stretch with wins in seven of their last 10 games.

Felix Hernandez (9-11) went the distance -- eight innings -- but allowed both Oakland runs on six hits and was dealt a tough loss. The right-hander walked one and struck out eight for Seattle. The M's had nine hits but left 11 men on base and extended a scoreless drought to 26 consecutive innings. Seattle last plated a pair of runs in the first frame of a 5-2 loss to Kansas City on Wednesday and have been shut out in each of the past two games.

"He's put two (quality outings) in a row like that against the Angels and now against Oakland," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said of Hernandez. "He's doing fine, really pitching good and it's nice to see but we've got to get some runs across for him."

The Mariners have dropped the first nine games of their 11-game road trip and matched their worst skid since a nine-game slide from August 25-September 2, 2007. Seattle, at 57-96, is closing in on its first 100-loss season since 1983 and have dropped 11 in a row on the road.

Buck's home run led off the fourth and Suzuki added an RBI single to score Ryan Sweeney later in the inning for a 2-0 advantage. Sweeney doubled with one away. Oakland didn't leave the frame without a blemish of its own as Jack Cust struck out for the second time to surpass Rob Deer (186) for the dubious AL mark of strikeouts in a season with 187.

Seattle had back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth and got an Ichiro Suzuki two-out double in the seventh but Eveland escaped each time without incident.

Joey Devine made his 21st consecutive appearance without allowing a run in a 1-2-3 eighth and Brad Ziegler worked around a pair of singles in the ninth to collect his 10th save of the season.

Game Notes

Oakland leads the season series 8-6...Eveland has beaten the Mariners three times this season...Carlos Silva (4-15) will toe the rubber Saturday for Seattle opposite Oakland's Gio Gonzalez (1-4)...Eveland is 4-0 against Seattle this season in four starts with a 1.99 earned run average...Hernandez had a six-game win streak against Oakland snapped and registered a career-high with 194 2/3 innings pitched this season...Devine's streak spans 20 2/3 innings...The M's 26-inning scoreless streak is the third longest in club history.