Rookie Hernandez Shuts Down the A’s

On the mound, Felix Hernandez exhibits all the poise and confidence of a veteran. It’s afterward that he shows signs of his true age, giggling and fidgeting with his towel as he discusses his day.

The teen phenom dazzled again, and Adrian Beltre and Greg Dobbs each drove in a run to provide the necessary support in the Seattle Mariners’ 2-0 win over the struggling Oakland Athletics on Monday at Oakland.

“My age doesn’t matter,” Hernandez said. “I’m a good pitcher.... Once I’m on my game, I can’t fail.”

Yuniesky Betancourt had a triple for Seattle, which handed the A’s their fifth loss in six games -- their third shutout defeat in five games and American League-high 12th.

The 19-year-old Hernandez (3-2) pitched seven shutout innings to beat rookie Joe Blanton (8-11), efficiently getting groundout after groundout and giving up only one fly ball that reached the outfield.

The A’s dropped 1 1/2 games behind the Angels in the AL West race and 1 1/2 games back of the New York Yankees in the wild-card standings. Oakland lost two of three to New York in a weekend series, then dropped the opener of a series against last-place Seattle.

Hernandez gave up four hits, struck out five and walked one in a 107-pitch performance. J.J. Putz and George Sherrill pitched in the eighth and Eddie Guardado worked the ninth for his 30th save.

Chicago 5, Boston 3 -- Brandon McCarthy (2-1) pitched seven innings of shutout ball and Paul Konerko homered against Curt Schilling at Boston to help the White Sox extend their winning streak to five games.

Juan Uribe had a single, a double and a homer as Chicago’s magic number to clinch the AL Central dropped to 17. Boston lost for only the third time in 24 home games. The Red Sox lead the New York Yankees by three games in the AL East.

Schilling (5-7) gave up four runs and nine hits, three walks and a hit batter in 6 1/3 innings, striking out four. It was the first time in six starts this season the former ace, who is recovering from ankle surgery, gave up fewer than five earned runs.

Toronto 6, Baltimore 2 -- Gustavo Chacin (12-8) took a three-hitter into the seventh inning, and Shea Hillenbrand scored a run and drove in one to help lift the Blue Jays at Baltimore.

Cleveland 2, Detroit 0 -- Scott Elarton (8-7) won for the first time in more than a month, giving up four hits in 6 1/3 innings at Detroit to help the Indians to within 1 1/2 games of the wild-card lead.

Jose Hernandez homered to help send Detroit to its fifth consecutive loss. The Tigers haven’t scored in 19 innings.

Texas 7, Minnesota 0 -- David Dellucci hit a three-run double to back a strong start by Kameron Loe (8-4) at Minneapolis.