Eighteen strikeouts, and Seattle barely got going
Zack Gelof homered to right-centre in the top of the first. The Mariners had not come to bat yet and were already behind.
They answered fast. Randy Arozarena came home on a Julio Rodriguez single, Cal Raleigh singled in another, and Lazaro Montes drove in a third before the inning closed. Three runs, one frame, T-Mobile Park loud.
That was most of Seattle’s night. Athletics pitchers struck out eighteen Mariners on Thursday, and the home side scraped together one more run across the remaining eight innings. The 7-4 final flatters them slightly.
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Butler flips it in the fifth
Lawrence Butler broke the tie with a two-run single in the top of the fifth, and the Athletics never trailed again. Donovan Walton, sent up to pinch-hit, dropped a solo shot into right-centre for his fifth of the year and pushed the margin to 5-3.
Scott Blewett handled two scoreless innings for his first win in Athletics colours. Hogan Harris shut the door with a perfect ninth, his 14th save of the season. Kade Anderson took the loss for Seattle.
Gelof’s first-inning blast was his 16th home run of the year, and it set the shape of everything that followed.
The series Seattle cannot afford to lose
This was game one of four against the worst team in the American League West, and the Mariners came into it needing all of them. They sit at 66-75, six games behind Houston in the division and four and a half off the last wild card place with the calendar running out.
The Athletics, 55-86 and eleven games adrift of Seattle in the standings, have now won two in a row and are enjoying themselves at exactly the wrong moment for their hosts.
Three games left in this series. Seattle need most of them.
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