By Matthew T.F. Harrington

AP photo: Robinson Cano right and Kyle Seager (15) of the Seattle Mariners jumps for joy after defeating the Oakland A’s 3-2 Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum to open a three game series

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Athletics dropped a tight 3-2 decision to divisional foes the Seattle Mariners Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum. Rookies Joey Wendle and Bruce Maxwell knocked in runs for the A’s, but a pair of Mariners homers from Norichika Aoki and Mike Zunino did in Daniel Mengden and the A’s. Sean Doolittle pitched a scoreless inning of relief, his second appearance since returning from the disabled list.

Mengden (1-7, 6.39 ERA) entered his start Friday coming off the worst outing of his career. The mustachioed hurler last just 2 2/3 innings against the Red Sox on Saturday, giving up 7 earned runs. The righty with the funky wind-up rebounded from that outing to put together a start showing his trending upward, not downward.

“It seems like he was just missing,” said Melvin. “He was getting into counts where he had to throw a lot of pitches and next thing you know he’s at 75 pitches. He ends up getting through five, he can hang his hat on how he finished.”

Mengden went 5 innings, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out six batters, the third highest total this season. He hit a snag in the first inning thanks to an unfortunate bounce. After walking Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz ripped a liner to left field that was going to one-hop Khris Davis. Davis charged in but appeared to get caught in a divot from the conversion from the Raiders field to the A’s outfield, causing the ball to hop over his glove and to the wall. Cano came home to score on what was officially ruled a double for a 1-0 lead. Aoki would homer to open the 3^rd, his second long ball of the year for a 2-0 lead.

Mengden would load allow the next two hitters to reach, with former A’s Seth Smith and Robinson Cano singling back-to-back. Mengden got the slugger Cruz to line out to short, then coaxed a pop out from Kyle Seager. He would load the bases after walking Adam Lind, but wiggled out of the jam with a punch-out of Leonys Martin to finish off the inning.

He would then retire another six straight, including picking up two strike outs to wrap up his appearance and give confidence moving forward. The righty was phenomenal in his first month in the big leagues, posting a 2.81 ERA over his first four starts but saw that number balloon up to 5.73 in June, prompting a demotion to Nashville.

“It didn’t appear like we would get five innings out of him,” said Melvin. “Certainly his last two innings were by far his best. He attacked the strike zone more. You could just see his confidence went up.”

Despite the strong outing, Mengden left the game on the hook for the loss. Mariners’ starter Hisashi Iwakuma (15-11, 3.96) pitched well, going 6 2/3 innings with two runs allowed. He was staked out to a 3-2 lead when Mike Zunino crushed a Daniel Coulumbe offering onto Mount Davis for his 10^th homer of the season. They had cut the Mariner’s lead to 2-1 in the 5^th before the dinger. They would score a run in the bottom of the 7^th to pull within one but the Seattle bullpen would shut them down. Edwin Diaz picked up his 14^th save of the season.

One tweak that worked for the A’s was batting Joey Wendle in the leadoff spot. Wendle went three for four and is expected to be in the leadoff spot again Saturday against Felix Hernandez when Kendall Graveman takes the hill.

“His first at-bat he saw eight pitches and ended up getting a hit,” said Melvin. “It seemed like he had a good at bat every time up there. He’s got a little speed, can use the hole. We’ll use him in that leadoff spot for a little bit now. He did a good job.”