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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Hisashi Iwakumas sore neck nearly prevented the Mariners pitcher from making his scheduled start and continued to bother him throughout the night.The Mariners gave their right-hander two big reasons to stick it out -- a pair of long home runs by Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz.Another stellar outing from Seattles bullpen helped, too.Iwakuma pitched into the sixth inning for his 14th win and the Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 4-3 on Saturday night for their seventh victory in eight games.I was OK to go today, but as the game progressed I started to feel stiffness, Iwakuma said through an interpreter. My body was starting to fly open. I wasnt as high as I wanted it to be. I kind of felt that throughout the third, fourth, fifth inning, but I was able to get out of jams.Iwakuma (14-7) allowed three runs on nine hits for his eighth win in the last nine starts. He struck out two and didnt walk a batter for the fifth time this season.Four Seattle relievers combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. Edwin Diaz retired three batters for his sixth save.Our bullpen was outstanding, Mariners manager Scott Servais said. Very, very good and they needed to be tonight. We didnt have much room for error. Thats a good formula for a win.A day after squandering several scoring opportunities, the Mariners stranded two runners in the first and another in the third before breaking through.Cruz hit his 29th home run leading off the fourth inning. Seth Smith singled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the fifth and Cano hit the next pitch from Kendall Graveman (8-8) over the center-field wall for his 26th homer.We have guys that can hit line drives also but homers are good, too, Cruz said. Whatever way you can score runs, theyre welcome.Khris Davis homered for the second consecutive day while Coco Crisp and Billy Butler had three hits apiece for Oakland.Graveman allowed four runs over six innings and lost for the second time in his past 14 starts. He was pulled after 79 pitches.This year is a lengthy one for him so I dont think its a bad thing to cut it short, As manager Bob Melvin said, explaining his decision to pull Graveman. We had some good performances out of the bullpen. We had some guys rested come in.DAVIS MUSCLES UP AGAINDavis hit his 29th homer leading off the sixth, extending his career-high pace. Whats most impressive is that 16 of Davis home runs have come at the spacious Coliseum, normally considered a pitchers park.Hes making the Coliseum look like a hitters park, Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt said. Youre always making sure youre watching when hes at the plate.TRAINERS ROOMMariners: James Paxton threw a bullpen session and reported no pain six days after getting hit in his left elbow by a line drive. Paxton is on schedule to pitch Tuesday in Anaheim but a decision wont be made for certain until the team sees how he responds Sunday.Athletics: Former closer Sean Doolittle (left shoulder strain) will begin a rehab assignment and pitch one inning for Triple-A Nashville on Monday. The plan is for Doolittle to make two more appearances in the minors before potentially joining the As on their next homestand beginning Aug. 22. ... RHP Jesse Hahn (right shoulder strain) threw 30 pitches off the mound and could begin a rehab assignment soon. ... Josh Phegley (right knee strain) took batting practice before the game but has not done any catching.UP NEXTMariners: Wade LeBlanc (1-0) makes his seventh start in the series finale on Sunday. The lefty last started against Oakland on Sept. 23, 2014.Athletics: RHP Zach Neal (2-1) faces the Mariners for the second time this season. His only loss of the year came against Seattle on May 25 when he allowed seven runs in four innings. Soccer Jerseys China . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. Custom Soccer Jerseys . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. https://www.fakesoccerjerseys.com/ . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Authentic Soccer Jerseys .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Authentic . The mixed zone is not a place to make friends. Halfway through his maiden Test double-hundred, against India in Ahmedabad in 2008, AB de Villiers told Jacques Kallis about a shot he had mastered. He referred not to a cut or sweep, lap or ramp, not to one of those outlandish pick-up shots that a hockey player would try if handed a tennis racquet. No. De Villiers was talking about the far more humble defensive block.A helmeted de Villiers, bat in hand, pink pads on, ready for a hit in an indoor net, recounts the moment via a video clip on cricketyard.com. If I could have my career over again, he says, this will be the first shot that Ill teach myself: the late block. Once you can play this shot, everything else will come naturally to you… Every shot I play, I set up to play a really late defensive stroke.De Villiers goes on to demonstrate how he shapes up for each ball - bat pointing to first slip, backlift raised high at the point of the bowlers release, set to meet the full ball with a late block, before letting his reflexes take over. If the ball is wide, he will allow his hands to flow. If short, he will cut or pull as per instinct. I dont have a defensive mindset when I do it, he says of setting up for the defensive block. All I know is, that is my best chance of getting into a really, really good position for my other strokes. And if its a really good ball, I will sort of succumb to the bowler and say, Listen, well bowled, Im going to do the late shot. And I might still get off strike if it runs down to third man.Process that for a second. The most versatile shot-maker in the game - with the capacity, it seems, to hit any ball, of any length, in any format, to any part of the ground - has a method rooted in a textbook forward-defensive. The shot that results may go against the dictums of cricketing geometry - not to mention the laws of physics - but until the ball is delivered, de Villiers adopts a tried-and-tested approach. Only when he is ready to defend - visualising a box in front of him, within whose boundaries he keeps his bat, feet and head - does he consider the possibility of attack.The world of batting abounds with such contradiction. Most of the analysis (from commentators and writers) is little but informed guesswork. A lot of it is convenient categorisation. Spectators may term a firm push back to the bowler as a defensive shot, but a batsman may think differently. For him, picking the ball out of the hand, reading length early, taking a purposeful stride and finding the middle of the bat may all be signs of aggression. Similarly, commentators may assumme a batsman is confident when he strides out, but he could be putting on an act when actually being wracked with insecurity.dddddddddddd A batsmans body language, his strokes, his response to a bowler mouthing off, all this is only one part of the story. When one observes said batsman at practice and listens to him deconstruct his method, when one speaks to his team-mates and coaches, keeping in mind past batting successes and failures as well as critical junctures in his career, only then does the full picture emerge. And that too is often work in progress.There was a time when journalists (and players) explored these themes in books (and autobiographies). The amount of time available between tours allowed for deep analysis, and the terrific rapport between cricketers and writers enabled colour and insight. These days there is barely time to hammer out match reports, let alone examine spells and innings. Journalists have to make do with press-conference mutterings and the occasional one-on-one. Backroom access is almost out of the question.Which brings us to this months cover story: Ed Smiths meticulous exploration of technique and coaching in the age of the dazzling bat. Smith is a former Test cricketer who draws upon his technical and tactical know-how. He is an aesthete who is well versed with the games evolution, able to link a Virat Kohli cover drive to an image of Geoff Boycott taking his stance.Earlier this year, Smith worked as a consultant to Royal Challengers Bangalore, getting a ringside view of some of the finest limited-overs batsmen of our (and all) time. Which put him in an enviable position - not only because he was able to watch batsmen of the calibre of de Villiers and Kohli from close range but also because he could shadow them at practice, observe them at team meetings and listen to what team-mates had to say about them. Inside knowledge isnt always right, Smith cautions. But about pure talent, people close to the subject tend to know. Ask cricketers to name the games freak, theyll say AB. When de Villiers walks into a room, you sense exactly that. He does not signal this pre-eminence himself. It is written on everyone else.There is much else to savour in this issue: a cracking history of Pakistanis in the north Staffordshire leagues, the little-known story of Don Bradman meeting Kerry Packer, a Garry Sobers retrospective, and five writers on how cricket broke their hearts. ' ' '