Photo credit: @Athletics

By Matthew Harrington

The Oakland A’s rallied in the seventh inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 5-2 on the road Friday night. Franklin Barreto hit his first homerun of the season, Robbie Grossman knocked in two runs and Brett Anderson went six-plus innings for the win. Newly minted All-star and closer Liam Hendriks nailed down his fourth save of the year.

Seattle took the lead in the first off a J.P. Crawford sacrifice fly, but Barreto’s big fly off starter Yusei Kikuchi tied the game. Tom Murphy lifted a solo fly off Anderson in the bottom of the fifth to give Seattle a 2-1 edge. 

Kikuchi was cruising through six innings having given up just the one run, but he ran into trouble in the seventh. Matt Olson hit a ground-rule double to open the inning then scored on Khris Davis’ single and a throwing error by Domingo Santana in right. Mark Canha grounded out to move Davis to 3rd, then Davis scored on Ramon Laureano’s sacrifice fly for a 3-2 A’s lead.

Kikuchi (4-6, 4.94 ERA) would escape the inning, but wound up the loser after going seven innings with four hits and three runs (two earned) allowed. Anderson (9-5, 3.86 ERA), by virtue of the rally, wound up the winner after going 6 1/3 innings with five hits and two runs.

Robbie Grossman gave the A’s breathing room in the top of the ninth, knocking a one-hopper to the wall off Dan Altavilla good for two runs. Hendriks, crowned the A’s closer with Treinen injured, pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to close out the contest after Ryan Buchter and Yusmeiro Petit bridged the gap between Anderson and the closer.