OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- It was a big night for the Oakland Athletics' award winners.
Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito was dominant for six innings and Most Valuable Player Miguel Tejada homered and drove in three runs as Oakland rolled to an 8-3 triumph over the Seattle Mariners.
Zito (1-0) allowed three hits and two walks, struck out three and improved to 5-1 lifetime against Seattle. The 24-year-old lefthander ran his career record to 48-17 for a 738. winning percentage - the best of any pitcher with 50 major league decisions.
"Zito pitched well," Oakland manager Ken Macha said. "It was a slow start. He ran his pitch count up, so that's why he only lasted until the sixth. Once Zito got his curve going, he was able to take control of the game a bit, but he still had thrown too many pitches."
"My curve wasn't there in the first several innings, but it came along," Zito said. "In the first, they took a patient route with me and I ended up throwing too many pitches. Once I got my curve, I was able to settle down. I can't take anything for granted this year. I may have won the Cy last year, but that doesn't mean I won't sit back and not go after hitters."
Jeremy Fikac followed Zito with two hitless innings before Chad Bradford surrendered a pair of meaningless runs in the ninth.
Tejada erased a 1-0 deficit in the third with his first homer of the season, a three-run blast off starter Jamie Moyer.
"Everyone here makes an effort to get runs across," Tejada said. "I was able to get my pitch and then hit it. We studied Moyer tonight, trying to find a way to hit him."
Moyer (0-1) was tagged for eight runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. The lefthander, in his 17th major league season, uncharacteristically walked four.
"I thought the cold bothered me a bit more than usual," Moyer said. "They do have an added dimension now with (Erubiel) Durazo there. But I should have pitched better. I didn't make good pitches tonight and that really cost me. I couldn't get any location going. Once hitters know that, they can hit against you."
The A's have won the first two games of the three-game series, outscoring the Mariners, 13-3.
"Well, we didn't come in here expecting it would be easy," said Mariners manager Bob Melvin, who fell to 0-2 as a major league skipper. "We knew they were good (pitchers), but I thought we could hit them to some degree."
"They got two great pitching performances and we didn't have any bat production," Seattle second baseman Bret Boone added. "It's no fun being 0-2. But we just have to come back and go at it tomorrow."
Seattle broke on top in the opening inning. Ichiro Suzuki opened the game with a single and scored on John Olerud's two-out bloop single.
Moyer cruised through two innings and easily retired the first two batters in the third. Mark Ellis doubled and Scott Hatteberg singled and Moyer got ahead of Tejada with a first-pitch strike. But the Oakland shortstop launched the next offering into the left field seats for a 3-1 lead.
Moyer threw three straight balls to Eric Chavez, who got the "green light" and hammered the next offering into the right field bleachers for his first homer.
"The two homers were both different," Moyer said. "Against Tejada, I was trying to play the in-and-out and up-and-down game. It didn't work the way I wanted it to. Against Chavez, I just got behind him and threw him something too good not to hit."
Ellis made it 6-1 with a two-out, two-run double in the fourth.
Oakland tacked on two runs in the fifth as Terrence Long delivered a bloop RBI single and Ramon Hernandez drew a bases-loaded walk.
Seattle pushed across a run in the ninth and had the bases loaded with none out. But Bradford struck out Jeff Cirillo, retired Carlos Guillen on a run-scoring groundout and got Pat Borders on a bouncer to second.
