with Brian Elliott to open the third. Killorn scored

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Henry Blanco hopped on a cross-country flight from Miami first thing Friday morning for his fresh start out West with the Seattle Mariners -- still a big leaguer as he approaches his 42nd birthday in August. And what a memorable Mariners debut he delivered -- with the bat, behind the plate catching ace Felix Hernandez, and even in a spontaneous mound visit. Blanco hit a sixth-inning grand slam to break a scoreless tie and give Venezuelan countryman and good friend King Felix all the offence he needed, and Seattle beat the Oakland Athletics for the second straight game with a 4-0 victory Saturday. He hardly saw this coming. "I was hoping I could still get a job and show them I can still play," said Blanco, who is playing for his 11th team. "That was a special day today." The 41-year-old Blanco, a .184 hitter with no home runs coming into the game, was a most unlikely candidate to provide the decisive hit for Seattle. The Mariners signed him Friday, three days after his release by Toronto. He became the oldest Seattle player ever with a slam. Mariners manager Eric Wedge wrote Blanco into the lineup right away -- and it didnt hurt Blanco had previously caught Hernandez in the bullpen for the World Baseball Classic. "Im glad he did it," Wedge said. "First of all, I thought he did a tremendous job behind home plate. You can see what he does back there, how he handles things and the way he makes it look so easy. ... Talk about going up there ready to hit, bases loaded, he goes up there ready to hit and hit it a long way." Hernandez (8-4) struck out five of Oaklands initial eight batters and seven through four innings on the way to eight Ks in seven scoreless innings. Michael Morse had two doubles among his three hits, including one in the sixth before Blancos drive stayed just inside the left-field foul pole. Blancos only other grand slam came with Milwaukee more than 13 years ago -- on May 12, 2000, off Pittsburghs Jason Schmidt. It was the fifth-longest gap between grand slams dating back to 1900, according to information provided by the Mariners from the Elias Sports Bureau -- 13 years, 34 days. Blancos slam at 41 -- he turns 42 on Aug. 29 -- topped one by Raul Ibanez earlier this season accomplished at 40 years, 347 days. "Thats pretty good. Well Ive got it now," Blanco said, smiling. Hernandez received a big defensive assist to end the fifth and save a run. Jed Lowrie doubled leading off the inning and advanced on Seth Smiths flyout to centre. But Chris Young flied into a double play in which right fielder Endy Chavez threw Lowrie out at home to keep the game scoreless. Lowrie didnt even touch the plate. "I called him out," Hernandez quipped. And, with Coco Crisp aboard on a one-out single in the sixth, Hernandez got John Jaso -- who caught his perfect game with Seattle last year -- to line into a double play at first that caught Crisp off the bag. The As also grounded into an inning-ending double play in the seventh with runners on first and second. Suddenly, Seattle has a chance to sweep the first-place As on Sunday after Oakland took three in a row from the New York Yankees before this series began, including a 3-2, 18-inning victory Thursday. Seattle snapped Oaklands 11-game home winning streak at the Coliseum on Friday night, then put together another fine performance to back its ace. The As have lost their first series in the last 10 over the past month. Hernandez allowed five hits and walked one to improve to 22-7 with a 2.70 ERA lifetime in 39 career starts in June. Seattle starters are 5-1 with a 0.94 ERA -- 6 earned runs in 57 1-3 innings -- since June 7 and have gone six straight starts of at least seven innings. Charlie Furbush and Yoervis Medina each pitched an inning of relief to finish the Mariners six-hit shutout. Still, Blanco provided the highlight of the day. "For him to come through like that is awesome, his first start here. That was unbelievable," Hernandez said. "It surprised me a little bit. But I know he has a little power. Hes good." Oaklands A.J. Griffin (5-6) dropped to 0-3 over his four-start winless stretch. The right-hander allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings, struck out three and walked two. "At the end of the day its four runs on one pitch, and when youre facing Felix, every run counts," Griffin said. "Its frustrating. Hopefully were not talking about something like this again." Blanco, meanwhile, hopes for a few more. In his 16th season, he is still fueled by one thing: "Im just trying to win a World Series," he said. "I love the game, I have passion for the game and I just want to get a ring so I can go home." Notes: Crisp returned to the Oakland lineup playing centre field and batting leadoff in his first start since bruising his heel Tuesday night against New York. He didnt move as well as usual. ... As RF Josh Reddick had the night off. ... Mariners starting pitchers have had eight consecutive quality starts. ... Wedge said 1B Justin Smoak (strained right oblique), CF Franklin Gutierrez (strained right hamstring) and demoted 2B Dustin Ackley would likely be re-evaluated after Sundays game to determine their next steps. ... The series finale Sunday has the looks of a possible pitchers duel with Oaklands Bartolo Colon (8-2) and Seattles Hisashi Iwakuma (7-1). ... Announced first-pitch temperature was 56 degrees. ... In 2001, Edgar Martinez hit a grand slam at 38 years, 220 days -- the previous-oldest Seattle player before Ibanez and Blanco this season. Fred Lynn Angels Jersey . U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in Manhattan agreed that lawyers on both sides could make their formal requests by Nov. 8. A hearing is scheduled for a day earlier. Jordan Siev, a lawyer for Rodriguez, wrote in a joint letter to the judge from lawyers on both sides that MLB lawyers planned to ask that the lawsuit be dismissed. Fred Lynn Jersey . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. http://www.baseballangelslockroom.com/j-c-ramirez-angels-jersey/ . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Trevor Cahill Angels Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre. Jonathan Lucroy Jersey . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. CALGARY, Alberta -- After falling behind early on the road, the Tampa Bay Lightning were pleased with the way they responded.Brian Boyle scored two first-period goals and the Lightning beat Calgary 6-3 on Wednesday night to snap the Flames six-game winning streak.Thats a really good team over there. A lot of speed, a lot of skill. Theyre tough to play at home, and theyve been hot, Boyle said. Its never a perfect game, but we made some strides tonight.Alex Killorn also scored twice, the second into an empty net, and Braydon Coburn and Andrej Sustr added goals. Victor Hedman and Valtteri Filppula each had three assists, and Ben Bishop made 19 saves to help Tampa Bay win for only the second time in nine games (2-6-1).I give them credit. I thought they were the hungrier of the two teams and the margins were small and they deserved to get points out of there, Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said.Troy Brouwer, TJ Brodie and Micheal Ferland scored for Calgary.Brouwer had a power-play goal 3:06 into the game before the Lightning tied it at 10:04, converting their first man advantage. With Dougie Hamilton serving a double-minor for high-sticking, Boyle neatly re-directed Hedmans point shot past goalie Chad Johnson.Tampa Bay took the lead for good less than 4 minutes later when Boyle got behind Brodie with a nifty give-and-go with Filppula and beat Johnson with a deke to his backhand.(Hedman) was a monster tonight. Hes such a huge part of our team. Head up on the first one. I just kind of had my stick out in the air and he hits it, sandlot style, Boyle said.Trailing 2-1, the Flames had a couple of good chances to tie it early in the second but Johnny Gaudreau hit the post and good defending from Anton Stralman prevented Ferland from getting away a shot on a breakaway.ddddddddddddhortly after, Coburn put the Lightning up 3-1 when his slap shot from the blue line beat Johnson. It was Coburns first goal in 102 games.Sustrs first of the season at 18:47 made it 4-1.It wasnt the start we wanted, but Im pretty happy with the resiliency of our group coming back, Killorn said. You cant always control the way that the game starts, but you can control how you respond to that and I think we responded really well.Gulutzan replaced Johnson with Brian Elliott to open the third. Killorn scored a short-handed goal 37 seconds into the period.There are going to be games where you just dont have it, Brouwer said. Its a shame, because I actually thought we were pretty good to start the game and I liked where we were at, but then we let a couple floater shots from the point get through -- things that are uncharacteristic of us.Game notes The Lightning were without leading scorer Nikita Kucherov (undisclosed), who joined Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan on the sidelines. Then they lost Ondrej Palat (undisclosed) in the second period. ... Cory Conacher, recalled earlier in the day from Syracuse of the AHL, took Kucherovs spot on the line with Tyler Johnson and Palat.... Hedman played in his 500th NHL game. ... Calgarys Sean Monahan had an assist to extend his career-best scoring streak to eight games. He has four goals and six assists during the run, the second-longest active streak in the NHL behind Sidney Crosby (nine games).UP NEXTLightning: Complete their four-day, three-game Canadian trip at Vancouver on Friday night and Edmonton on Saturday night.Flames: Host Columbus on Friday night. ' ' '