Seattle Mariners’ Mitch Haniger (17) does the forearm bash with Jake Bauers, center, after Haniger hit a two-run home run to score Bauers in the fifth inning on Sat Jul 24, 2021 at T Mobile in Seattle (AP News photo)

A’s Drop Another Game to the Mariners 5-4

By Barbara Mason

After splitting the first two games of the series the Oakland A’s and the Seattle Mariners met Saturday night in Game Three at T-Mobile Park.

Oakland had a very good game until the seventh inning of yesterday’s game. A horrible relief appearance by Jake Diekman throwing back to back wild pitches resulting in the winning run was the low light for Oakland. In the game there were 5 wild pitches thrown and three of them belonged to Diekman. The A’s had fallen behind in this game 3-0 but tied up the game. It was the seventh inning that spelled the difference.

In Game Three the A’s had their ace Chris Bassitt on the mound and Seattle called upon Logan Gilbert. Seattle took the early lead in the first inning when Mitch Haniger scored.

Oakland started stringing together hits in the third inning. Andrus, Kemp, Lowry and Laureano all had singles in the inning taking a 3-1 lead. There was a pitching change for Seattle in the latter part of the inning with JT Chargois taking over and getting the Mariners out of the inning. In the bottom of the third Mitch Haniger unleashed a 402 feet home run cutting the A’s lead to 3-2.

In the bottom of the fifth inning Seattle’s Mitch Haniger struck again hitting his second home run of the game giving Seattle the lead 4-3. In the seventh inning Aramis Garcis would tie up the game with a 336ft home run.

The score remained 4-4 into the bottom of the ninth inning. Lou Trivino loaded the bases in the inning. He walked two and allowed one hit and again a wild pitch allowed the winning run to score the walk off for the Mariners.

It was more trouble for the bullpen. Another loss for Oakland when relief pitching let the team down.

Tomorrow the A’s play their fourth and final game of this series attempting to tie up the series. They will need improved play from the bullpen to pull this off.

First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 1:10 PT. We will see Cole Irvin on the mound for Oakland and for Seattle Marco Gonzales will get the call.