Mariners demolish Yankees

American League

Seattle's Meche gave the Yankees hitters no respite

Gil Meche threw seven 2/3 scoreless innings to help the Seattle Mariners thrash the New York Yankees 6-0 on Tuesday.

Meche (3-1) allowed six hits while striking out four and walking two to hand the Yankees their second consecutive defeat.

Arthur Rhodes and Shigetoshi Hasegawa finished up to complete the shutout for the Mariners, who have won 12 of their last 13 games at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees' Roger Clemens (4-1) suffered his first lost of the season and remains at 297 career wins.

He struck out eight and walked one in six innings while allowing four runs on eight hits, including three home runs.

The Mariners' Bret Boone, Ben Davis and Edgar Martinez all hit home runs and were backed up by John Olerud's three hits.

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National League

A fine pitching display from Greg Maddux gave the Atlanta Braves a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros.

Maddux (3-3) allowed one run on five hits with five strikeouts in his seven innings for the Braves' third win in a row.

John Smoltz allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth to earn his 10th save from as many chances and struck out Brad Ausmus with two runners to end the game.

Gary Sheffield drove in a pair of runs for Atlanta, while Andruw Jones drove in the other run for the Braves, who made the most of just six hits.

Roy Oswalt (2-3) took the loss for the Astros, allowing three runs on six hits over six innings, striking out seven and walking two.