Sele Is Simply Too Tough for Padres

Aaron Sele pitched a four-hitter for his first complete game in nearly three years Sunday to lead the Seattle Mariners past the San Diego Padres, 5-0, at Safeco Field. He especially enjoyed working with 42-year-old catcher Pat Borders.

“His game plan was great. It was a fun game and he did a great job,” Sele said.

Sele (3-4) struck out three and walked one in his ninth career shutout and 15th complete game. The last was a three-hit shutout for the Angels in a 7-0 victory over the Dodgers on July 29, 2002.

He retired 13 of the last 14 batters and threw 69 of his 112 pitches for strikes in Seattle’s first shutout of the season.

The Mariners, who ended San Diego’s eight-game winning streak Saturday night, took two of three from the Padres to earn their first winning homestand since last July. They went 5-4 against Boston, the New York Yankees and San Diego.

Arizona 1, Detroit 0 -- Javier Vazquez (5-3) pitched a five-hitter for his first shutout since 2003, and Craig Counsell’s RBI single in the eighth inning gave the Diamondbacks the victory at Detroit.

Arizona took the lead over the Padres by half a game in the NL West with their ninth win in 12 games. The Diamondbacks (27-18) didn’t get their 27th victory last season until June 17.

Boston 5, Atlanta 2 -- Matt Clement was almost perfect at Fenway Park and remained unbeaten after pitching the first complete game of the season for the Red Sox.

Clement improved to 5-0 for the first time in his career, yielding four hits. He retired the side in order seven times, struck out seven and walked none.

Kansas City 9, St. Louis 2 -- John Buck’s home run capped a nightmarish first inning for Cardinal shortstop David Eckstein, whose two errors led to six unearned runs at Kansas City.

Eckstein, who led major league shortstops last season with a .988 fielding percentage for the Angels, made a third error in the second.

Minnesota 6, Milwaukee 5 -- Junior Spivey mishandled Luis Rodriguez’s grounder for an error with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Lew Ford led off the inning with a triple to left-center off Matt Wise (0-1). Michael Cuddyer and Shannon Stewart were walked intentionally around a groundout by Terry Tiffee.

Rodriguez then hit a hard grounder, and with the infield playing in, Spivey bobbled the ball and could not recover in time to make a play.

Chicago Cubs 4, Chicago White Sox 3 -- Mark Prior (4-1) pitched a six-hitter to help the Cubs avert a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field. It was his first win since April 25, and he did it despite giving up three home runs. He struck out seven and walked one in his first complete game since August 15, 2003, against the Dodgers. He threw 126 pitches -- 84 strikes.

New York Yankees 5, New York Mets 3 -- Hideki Matsui and Bernie Williams rallied the Yankees to victory at Shea Stadium in the first Subway Series of the season.

Matsui tied the score at 3-3 with a two-run single off Roberto Hernandez and scored on a double by Williams as the Yankees took advantage of two eighth-inning errors to beat the Mets.

San Francisco 3, Oakland 1 -- Moises Alou hit a two-run homer and Noah Lowry (2-5) ended a six-start winless stretch with seven sharp innings at San Francisco. Lowry had lost his previous five decisions and hadn’t won since April 15.

Philadelphia 7, Baltimore 2 -- Cory Lidle (4-3) pitched a six-hitter and walked one at Baltimore in his 11th career complete game, the first this season. The right-hander came in 0-4 with a 6.95 earned-run average in six career games at Camden Yards.

Florida 8, Tampa Bay 5 -- Juan Encarnacion had a two-run double and pinch-hitter Juan Pierre hit a two-run single during a seven-run sixth inning, and the Marlins completed a three-game sweep of the Devil Rays at Miami.

Washington 9, Toronto 2 -- Jose Guillen hit a three-run double, Tony Blanco hit his first major league homer -- a three-run shot -- and Tomo Ohka (3-3) pitched eight strong innings at Toronto.

Cleveland 9, Cincinnati 2 -- The Indians took two of three in the interleague series at Cincinnati that matched the American League’s worst offense -- Cleveland was batting .237 -- against the National League’s worst pitching -- batters were hitting .302 off the Reds’ staff.