By Kahlil Najar

This has got to be taxing season already for the Oakland fan base. With tonight’s lose to Seattle the A’s are now 12-19 with 9 of those loses charged to the bullpen. The A’s now have their worst record to start a season since 2001 when they started 11-20.

It appeared that the A’s had everything in control going into the bottom of the seventh with a 3-1 lead and Evan Scribner coming in to take over for Sonny Gray. Scribner had not allowed a run in his last 10 appearances.

However it wasn’t as it seemed.

Scribner gave up two hits in the inning including a single to Dustin Ackley and a double to Brad Miller that scored Ackley to make it a 3-2 game. Head Coach Bob Melvin had seen enough and brought Fernando Abad to try and get the last out of the inning. Unfortunately for Oakland, Robinson Cano hit his 11th double of the year to score Miller and tie the game 3.

Then in the top of the 11th, Logan Morrison tattooed a hanging slider from Dan Otero into the Seattle seats and gave the Mariners a 4-3 victory.

“We’re obviously a lot better than we’ve been playing. I really believe that,” said Sonny Gray on the A’s performance tonight. Even with the team loss, Gray solidified himself as the ace of the A’s staff. He went six full innings, struck out 9 and only gave up one run.

Dan Otero is now 2-2 and possibly has a target on his back as the Oakland management has shown that they are not afraid of sending people down to Nashville and bringing up fresh blood.

“Otero is having a tough year but he isn’t the only one,” said Melvin. The A’s still lead the league in errors with 27 and have one of the worst bullpens in the league.

“You go out there and score runs for your guy and Sonny goes out and gives an A-plus effort. We just got to have someone step up,” said Josh Reddick.

The A’s hope to try to turn this road trip around as they send RHP Jesse Hahn (1-2) to the mound against LHP J.A. Happ (2-1).