Mariners Bomb Athletics

It's hard to tell who is the rookie and who are veterans on the Seattle Mariners' pitching staff.

While Jeff Fassero and Jamie Moyer have struggled in their first two starts, rookie Freddy Garcia has been sensational just what Lou Piniella has needed. Like a No. 1 pitcher.

"It's impressive watching Freddy pitch," Piniella said after Garcia won again as the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 6-3 Monday night.

"He was very aggressive on the mound and he challenged the hitters," the Mariners' manager said. "He's a big, strong kid. So we're stretching him out the right way."

Garcia (2-0) pitched 6 2-3 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He went 5 2-3 innings in his first major league start last Wednesday night, a 7-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.

Butch Huskey drove in three runs with a homer and a double, while David Bell and Domingo Cedeno each homered for Seattle.

Huskey, who is splitting the Mariners' left field job with John Mabry, broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run homer in the sixth inning off Jimmy Haynes (0-2), an 11-game winner last season.

Cedeno, the sixth shortstop used by the Mariners this season, added a two-run homer after Huskey's 419-foot drive to left.

Huskey homered after Edgar Martinez singled, while Cedeno, signed as a free agent Sunday after Carlos Guillen was lost for the season with a knee injury, homered following a single by Dan Wilson.

"I go out there and work hard everytime," said Garcia, a 22-year-old from Venezuela who was acquired in a three-for-one trade for Randy Johnson with Houston last July 31.

"I just go out there and throw hard and throw hard. I throw a lot of fastballs."

Garcia's fastball was clocked up to 96 mph on the Mariners' radar gun.

"There's no telling how good he can be," pithing coach Stan Williams said. "He's undefeated and he might stay that way."

Garcia gave up two home runs, including Tony Phillips' third of the season in the seventh.

Oakland's Matt Stairs tied the score at 2 in the sixth with his first homer of the season. It came after Bell homered in the fifth.

The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the second on consecutive doubles by Russ Davis and Huskey.

The Athletics tied the score in the fifth when Jason Giambi's single scored Miguel Tejada from second. Jason McDonald went from first to third on Giambi's hit and tried to score when the ball got away from catcher Dan Wilson, but Wilson recovered and tagged out McDonald on a close play.

Haynes went six innings, giving up six runs and nine hits with two walks with five strikeouts.

The pitch Haynes threw to Huskey in the sixth was the one he wanted back the most.

"I was trying to throw a fastball up in the zone to him and I didn't get it up enough," Haynes said. "It was about chest high and he did it pretty good."

Jose Mesa got four outs for his second save.

Notes: The A's sent down right-hander Brad Rigby, who had a 9.00 ERA in three relief appearances, to Triple-A Vancouver. Rigby was a second-round draft choice in June 1994. They recalled right-hander Kevin Jarvis from their Pacific Coast League farm club. ... Huskey made a diving, backhanded catch of Phillips' fly ball in left field foul territory in the third inning. ... Huskey hit his first homer in the American League after hitting 55 in the National League. ... David Segui was thrown out at the plate on second baseman Phillips' relay throw in the third. ... Martinez, the Mariners' slow-footed designated hitter, surprised the A's by stealing his first base of the season in the sixth. ... The Mariners took three of four in the series with Oakland. Since losing their first two games, they are 4-1. ... Phillips has five hits this season; three homers and two doubles. Fifteen of his 148 career homers have been against the Mariners, the most he's had against any major league team.

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