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SEATTLE -- Joe Saunders has no idea why he cant win on the road when he cant lose at home. The Seattle pitcher won his ninth straight decision at Safeco Field, throwing 6 1-3 effective innings Sunday as the Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 6-1. Saunders is 3-0 with an 0.94 ERA in four home starts this year, but is 0-4 with a 12.54 ERA on the road. "Its killing me," Saunders said. "I know I have it in me, its just a matter of doing it on the road. Hopefully we can turn the page a little bit and get a good start on the road." In 13 career appearances at Safeco, Saunders is 9-0 with a 1.72 ERA. "I dont think thats going to keep up. Its kind a fluky trend here early on," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. "Hes smart, he has a good feel, his stuffs been really good. Ive been impressed with his stuff, so I dont think thats going to continue." Saunders (3-4) allowed one run and five hits, striking out six and walking three. Kendrys Morales gave Saunders an early cushion with a three-run homer in the first inning, and the Mariners kept adding more. Tommy Milone (3-5) lost his fifth straight start, giving up five runs, six hits and three walks in five innings. This was the first time during the skid he failed to pitch into the seventh inning, and he has a 3.62 ERA over that span. Milone walked two in the first -- more than he had allowed in all but one of his seven previous starts this season. "I was maybe trying to be a little too fine in the first inning," Milone said. "Just tried to paint the black and thats probably what caused me to get behind." Defending AL West champion Oakland has lost six of seven. The As start a series Monday at division-leading Texas. "You go through ups and downs, but this is not very fun now," said Oaklands Brandon Moss, who struck out four times. Morales hit his fourth home run of the season in the first, a drive into the Oakland bullpen in left field that followed Michael Saunders leadoff single and Kyle Seagers one-out walk. "Kendrys came up with a huge hit and kind of got the ball rolling. Three runs in the first is kind of setting us up for a big game," Michael Saunders said. "We continued to keep adding runs throughout the game, and it was a great team game today." Josh Donaldson and Luke Montz hit consecutive doubles in the second, and the As had runners at the corners with no outs when Nate Freiman grounded to shortstop Brendan Ryan, who threw out Montz at the plate. Saunders retired the next two batters. "Not too many shortstops make that play," Wedge said. "His awareness out there is tremendous. It would be a tough double-play the way the ball was hit." Joe Saunders was as surprised as anyone when Ryan threw home. "He about took my head off," Saunders said. "It was a heads-up play, he made a great throw and great tag." Seattle stretched its lead on Jesus Monteros run-scoring single in the fourth and Seagers sacrifice fly in the fifth. Jason Bay added his fourth home run in the seventh inning, a drive to centre off Jerry Blevins. "Were playing good baseball right now," Michael Saunders said. "Were doing all the little things right, and its showing." NOTES: Oakland manager Bob Melvin said OF Coco Crisp, on the DL with a strained left hamstring, may run the bases Monday. If it goes well, a Wednesday return for Crisp is "not out of the question," Melvin said. ... Wedge batted Seager third and moved Morales and Michael Morse both down a spot in the lineup, to Nos. 4 and 5. Wedge said the moves were designed to take some pressure off Morales and Morse. "Ive seen them both chasing more than they should be chasing," Wedge said. 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LOUIS -- Vladimir Tarasenko was never worried.The right wing simply took the St. Louis Blues early season offensive woes in stride.I heard the words that everyone was saying our offense was not so good, Tarasenko said. But, we believed in each other and we believed in our game.That patience has paid off of late.Tarasenko scored three goals and Kevin Shattenkirk added two to lead the Blues to a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.The Blues have won three in a row and six straight at home.Tampa Bay lost its season-high fourth consecutive game.Jake Allen made 22 saves in improving to 12-3-3.St. Louis has scored three goals or more in each of its last nine games after an earlier string of six successive games with one goal or less.Weve been simplifying things and getting a lot of chances, Shattenkirk said. Everything is just kind of going our way.Tarasenko, who leads the team with 13 goals, recorded his fourth career hat trick. He scored twice in the games opening 9:37 to stake his team to a 2-0 lead.His early game outburst set the tone for the rest of the contest.We shot the puck at the right times, people were in position, St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. It was great to see.Tarasenko, known for his speed and puck-handling skills, scored his second goal on a rare one-timer off a perfect pass from Alexander Steen, who added three assists in his return after missing six games with a shoulder injury.The soft-spoken, Russian-born Tarasenko has nine goals and eight assists in his last 13 games.Its good to see him playing like this, Steen said. Hes been lethal for us. His hat trick goal was big, a timely goal.Shattenkirk, who also had two assists, addded two power-play goals, the second coming just 1:44 into second period for a 4-1 lead.ddddddddddddCedric Paquette scored twice for the Lightning, who have been outscored 19-9 during the four-game skid.Nikita Kucherov and Tyler Johnson also scored for Tampa Bay. Paquettes second goal trimmed the deficit to 5-4 with 8:02 remaining in the third period.I thought we deserved points, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. Im not going to sit here and say we deserved to win the game. But we definitely deserved points.St. Louis has won its last five at home against the Lightning, who last won in St. Louis on Dec. 18, 2009.The Blues are 9-0-2 in their last 11 home games.Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up four goals on 16 shots and was replaced by St. Louis native Ben Bishop early in the second period.I thought we gave it an honest effort, Paquette said. It was a pretty good game. But (to lose), its disappointing.Game notes The Lightning recalled RW Joel Vermin and LW Michael Bournival from Syracuse of the AHL. ... St. Louis leads the overall series with Tampa Bay 21-11-3. ... Tampa Bay D Anton Stralman returned to the lineup after missing nine games due to an upper body injury. ... Blues LW David Perron had a career-best eight-game point streak snapped. ... Bishop did not start in back-to-back games for the first time this season. ... St. Louis C Paul Stastny played in his 700th NHL game.UP NEXT:Lightning: Return home after three-game trip to host Washington on Saturday.Blues: Host Winnipeg on Saturday in the fourth of five straight games at home. ' ' '