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SEATTLE -- Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma added to his dominant streak against the AL Central. The All-Star right-hander struck out seven and walked none in eight innings to run his scoreless streak against division teams to 48 2-3 innings in the Mariners 1-0 win over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night. It is the second-longest streak by any pitcher against one division dating to 1974. Orel Hershiser tossed 55 straight scoreless innings against NL West opponents in 1988. "Hes got a good two-seamer and his split was pretty much unhittable today," Kansas Citys Billy Butler said. "He was mixing a slider in there and had all three pitches working at any time. He was throwing them all for strikes." Iwakuma (2-0) scattered four singles and allowed only one baserunner to reach second in his second start of the season. Iwakuma, who began the year on the disabled list with a strained tendon on the middle finger of his pitching hand, bolsters a strong pitching staff that has helped the team win 11 times in the last 14 games since losing eight straight from April 15-22. "Hes getting better each and every time out," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said. "I think if you asked him, theres a lot more in there. Theres a lot of room for improvement, but that just goes to show how good he really is." Despite limiting the Mariners to just two hits and one run in six-plus innings, Danny Duffy (1-3) was the hard-luck loser for Kansas City. He has allowed two hits and a run in each of his first two starts this season after pitching out of the bullpen to begin the year. Both times he has been stuck with the loss. The Mariners pushed across the lone run in the third. Mike Zunino led off with a double for Seattles first hit and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout, Duffy intentionally walked Robinson Cano. Corey Hart followed with a run-scoring single up the middle that proved to be the difference. Seattle hitters have driven in runs three out of the six times opposing teams have intentionally walked Cano this season. "Offense didnt win the game, Kuma obviously was dominant," Hart said. "Any time a pitcher throws like that, you try to scrap any run you can get across, and one was enough. A guy throws like that, you hate to lose." Kansas City managed just four singles and advanced a runner to second base only once during the first eight innings. The Royals had their best opportunity to score in the ninth when Fernando Rodney walked two, but the closer struck out Butler and induced a game-ending groundout. Rodneys 10th save in 11 chances kept the Royals off the board for the 27th straight inning, a streak that dates to September 2013. "Our guys are grinders," McClendon said. "I think theyve proven that they know how to get back up off the mat, so to speak. This has been a tough month and a half for us in a lot of different ways, but I think when its all said and done, maybe were not as bad as people thought we were going to be." NOTES: Seattle LHP James Paxton, on the DL with a strained left lat muscle, played catch and is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Friday. ... Mariners RHP Taijuan Walker is scheduled to toss in the bullpen Sunday after playing catch on Thursday. Walker is on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation. ... Royals 2B Omar Infante was not in the lineup for the second consecutive day due to back spasms. Manager Ned Yost said the team doesnt think Infante will have to go on the DL. Infante is day to day. Wholesale Nike Air Vapormax . -- With his team down 16 points in the second quarter and headed for another blowout loss at home, Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson yelled out to his players to keep shooting and keep fighting on defence. Nike Air Vapormax Sale . -- The Oakland Raiders expect to have starting right tackle Tony Pashos back for Sundays game against the Houston Texans. https://www.fakevapormaxwholesale.com/ .com) - The New York Rangers hope to punch their ticket to the second round when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday for a Game 6 battle at Wells Fargo Center. Cyber Monday Nike Air Vapormax . Amare Stoudemire had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Carmelo Anthony scored 21 and the New York Knicks won their eighth straight game, 93-92 over Philadelphia on Friday night, sending the Sixers to their 23rd straight loss. Nike Air Vapormax Outlet .Former NBA forward Morris Peterson has been added to TSNs Toronto Raptors broadcast team.If one ripple from the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations means baseball prospects get off the island and into the major leagues without payoffs to smugglers and threats from kidnappers, its hard to see the downside.Just dont expect too much, too soon. Barely two hours after President Barack Obamas dramatic announcement Wednesday in Washington, both MLB and its players union acknowledged as much in statements.We will keep our clubs informed if this different direction may impact the manner in which they conduct business on issues related to Cuba, MLB said.We remain hopeful that todays announcement will lead to further positive developments, the union said.Lets hope so, considering how few positive developments have occurred before now. There were 25 Cuban-born players in the big leagues this past season, the best of which is arguably Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig. The story of how he finally got there, after four failed attempts to leave Cuba, involved a boat trip, a detour where he was held hostage in a Mexican motel room, repeated extortion threats and crossing the U.S. border illegally.On Tuesday, South Florida businessman Gilberto Suarez pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy to smuggle Puig out in return for a sizable cut of his multimillion-dollar salary.Suarez was the second man this year to enter a guilty plea related to the smuggling of a Cuban baseball player into the U.S. Last month, 41-year-old Eliezer Lazo was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle 1,000 Cubans, among them Texas Rangers outfielder Leonys Martin. Sadly, stories like Puigs unsavoury and sometimes life-threatening journey differs from so many others only in the details.Cuba has been turning out world-class athletes — and not just ballplayers — for more than a century. But since the 1959 revolution, most have stayed put.Track stars and multiple medallists such as Alberto Juantorena and Javier Sotomayor took star turns on the Olympic stage, but never reaped rewards that were commensurate with their talents. So, too, did heavyweights Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon, two of only three boxers to win gold medals at three Olympics and considered among the greatest amateurs ever. But neither turned pro.Stevenson was so smooth that a fight against Muhammad Ali was often hyped and loudly ddebated when both were near their prime, but never came off.dddddddddddd And some boxing observers think Savon, who succeeded Stevenson, was definitely the better of the two.But baseball was the stage where Cubas athletes shined brightest. Its version of the Big Red Machine dominated the international scene from the 1940s on, even as team officials thinned out the ranks for potential defectors and conducted bed checks with a zealousness the Cuban army would have admired.But after back-to-back gold medals in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996) — and a raft of defections in spite of the dangers — the cupboard was nearly empty. The team Cuba brought to Sydney for the 2000 Games was largely the same it had sent to the previous two Olympics, as well as every important international competition in between. It was old by any measure and only three players on the squad were under 25 at the time — young enough to make the risk seem worthwhile. Around the same time, half-brothers and defectors Livan and Orlando El Duque Hernandez were pitching for the Giants and Yankees in preparation for the major league playoffs a month down the road.That Cuban team lost the gold-medal game 4-0 to a U.S. team composed largely of young pro prospects and aging castoffs, and only so much has changed since. Many of the best players, such as Puig, Jose Fernandez and Jose Abreu, still find ways to escape. Most of those establish residency outside the U.S. in order to become free agents not covered by MLBs amateur draft. While that ruse often results in big deals, MLB is already hatching plans to get rid of the exemption and make such players part of an international draft by 2017.Making the flow of ballplayers more orderly and less dangerous would benefit just about everyone in the game. Theres even talk at the moment of MLB teams opening baseball academies in Cuba modeled on similar programs already up and running in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, two nations that are providing a big infusion of talent. But until the leaders of two nations that have spent more than a half-century trying to torment one another prove they can co-operate as well, talk is all it is.___Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke. ' ' '