The Oakland A’s starter James Kaprielian went seven innings of shutout ball against the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed May 26, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 3 – 7 – 0

Oakland 6 – 8 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Wed May 26, 2021

OAKLAND–If any consolation is to be found in Tuesday night’s dismal 4-3 defeat of the Oakland A’s (29-22) by the Seattle Mariners (23-27), it would be the, at least temporary, resurgence of Oakland’s bullpen. Burch Smith, Reymin Gudjuan, Sergio Romo, and Lou Trivino combined to allow Seattle only one hit over 4-1/3 innings of relief.

It also was encouraging that Elvis Andrus, who brought a .174 BA to the game, went three for four. It’s been a pleasant surprise that the Athletics, who by many statistical measurements should be in the middle of the pack, are the front runners in the AL West.

Wednesday, the task of stopping the A’s three game losing streak (one to the cellar dwelling Angeles and two to the Mariners) and protecting the team’s slim place at the top of the division rankings fell to James Kaprielian (1-0, 2.53), who looked very good in his first major league start on May 12 in Fenway Park, when he held the Red Sox to one run on five hits over five innings, which earned him his first, and so far only, MLB win. Kaprielian held the Mariners to seven scoreless innings in the A’s 6-3 win at the Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday.

Last Friday, he pitched well against the Angels in Anaheim and left the game with a 3-2 after 5-2/3 frames, when Yusmeiro Petit relieved him following a bases empty home run by Jared Walsh. That resulted in Petit’s only blown save so far this season.

Before today, Kaprielian had faced Seattle once, at the tail end of the 2020 season when he allowed his three inherited runners to score as well as giving up two earned runs of his own in 1 2/3 of an inning of hard labor.

Countering for Seattle on the mound was another righty, also a relative newcomer, Robert Dugger (0-0,4.15), whose major league resumé before this year consisted of 46 innings pitched for Miami over the course of the 2019 and ’20 seasons. In his most recent start, Duggger threw three scoreless frames for Seattle, in which he struck out four Cleveland batters, walked one, and didn’t allow any hits.

It was clear early on this woould be neither a hitless nor scoreless outing for Dugger. After Mark Canha’s lead off walk Dugger struck out Matt Olson and walked Ramón Laureano. Seth Brown then one-hopped the left field wall with an automatic double that drove in Canha and sent Laureano to third. He scored from there on Matt Chapman’s sacrifice fly to left, giving Kaprielian a two run lead to work with after an inning of play.

Olson gave him another when he led off the third with a towering that landed just over the right field fence in front of the Budweiser section. The blow, his 13th homer and 28th RBI. of the year, came off a 90 mph four seamer on a 2-2 count.

Karprielian got his first eight hitters out before yielding a base on balls to José Godoy (BA .111) and didn’t give up a hit until, two batters later, in the top of the fourth, Mitch Heniger lofted a soft fly to right for a single. That began Karprielian’s first bout of difficulties.

He struck out Seager, but an authoritative single to center moved Heniger to second, and, with, those two on base, Chapman lost JP Crawford’s foul pop up in the sun, extending the Mariners’ shortstop’s turn at bat. Karprielian overcame that obstacle by getting Crawford to fly out to left. A full count walk to Ty France loaded the bases with two out brought Donovan Walton to the plate.

He hit Kapdrielian’s first offering hard to second, where Tony Kemp made a nifty play to throw him out at first. With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Dugger gave up a single to Andrus and plunked García with a 71 mph curve. That was it for the youngster today.

Wyatt Miles was called upon to face the top of the Oakland batting order. He began by walking Canha on five pitches to load the bases. Olson followed up with a sacrifice fly to deep left center on which the centerfielder, Lewis, made an extremely nice play, bringing in Oakland´s fourth tally. Laudreanós Texas League single to left center plated García and sent Canha to third.

Both runners Mills had inherited now had scored, but Oakland wasn’t through with him yet. Seth Brown’s single to center brought Canha with the A’s sixth run, which was charged to Mills’ account. A wild pitch to Chapman advanced both runners a base, and a walk to the A’s third baseman reloaded the bases. But Seager made a nice play on Piscotty’s grounder to third, and the A’s had to settle for a six run lead.

Dugger hadn’t pitched well but not as poorly as his line indicated. It came to five runs, all earned, in 3-1/3 innings on five hits, a hit batter, and three walks. He had a strike out to his credit and had thrown 59 pitches, 38 for strikes, including one for a home run.

A long inning like that, in which Oakland batted around, can make the pitcher it benefits pay a price; his arm stiffens up. But Kaprielian set the Mariners down in order in the fifth.

Mills hung around for another inning, giving up an infield single to Andrus but escaping with a double play on a liner to second by García that left Andrus no time to scramble back to first. Anthony Misliewicz took over mound duties for Seattle in the sixth. Yohan Ramírez followed him for the seventh.

Yusmeiro Petitt made his 25th appearance of ´21 to replace Kaprielian after seven innings of two hit shut out ball by the A’s starter, who struck out four and walked two. His pitch count reached 94, 61 strikes. He went on to get the win, bringing his record to 2-0, 1.53).

Petit allowed three runs to score. Eric Campbell opened the inning with single to left center. An Ernie Lombardi single (off the fence) to right by Godoy moved him to third. He scored on Kelenic hard ground out to Olson unassisted.

Then Heniger doubled to left center and scored on Seager’s single to left. That was the end of Petit’s outing. On 27 pitches, he surrendered four hits and still was responsible for the runner on first when Jake Diekman came in to save Petit’s bacon, which he did by striking out Crawford and hanging around to pitch the ninth and earn his sixth save of the season in spite of allowing a hit and a walk in the final frame.

Oakland’s precarious purchase on first place will survive another day no matter what happens Wednesday night in Houston between the Astros and tlhe Dodgers.

The A’s will play the Angels at 6:40 Thursday evening with Chris Bassitt (4-2, 3.69) going against RHP Shohei Ohtani (1-0, 2.37) in the first of a four game series.