Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning in a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
Uehara posted his 12th save in 15 opportunities. Junichi Tazawa allowed two hits and struck out two in two scoreless innings for Boston.
"I was just focused on getting the first batter," said Uehara, who got Eric Hosmer to ground out to first to start the home half of the ninth. "Once I get the first out, I go after the next one. I was thinking that if I could just get one batter at a time things would work out."
"Things are going too well for me and to tell the truth it's a little scary."
Uehara has not allowed a run since July 6.
Seattle Mariners right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma (10-6) was roughed up for six runs on nine hits and a walk in 6-2/3 innings in a 10-0 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Iwakuma put up zeroes in a duel against Tom Gorzelanny for the first six innings, but fell apart in the seventh.
"The ball started to get high in the strike zone in that inning," said Iwakuma, who apparently tweaked his back trying to retrieve a Carlos Gomez bunt single that started the seventh. "My balance was off on my pitches, but I'm not really sure if it was because of my back."
"Before that, I had been able to keep it low in the zone and get grounders."
Norichika Aoki was 1-for-5 for the Brewers.