Seattle Mariners Abraham Toro (13) gets congratulated by teammate Kyle Seagar (15) after both scored on a Luis Torrens two run single in the top of the third inning that proved to be the gamer as the Mariners sweep the Oakland A’s on Tue Aug 24, 2021 at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

Seattle 5 – 11 – 1

Oakland 1 – 8 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Tuesday August 24, 2021

OAKLAND–Things haven’t looked-or at least felt-this dismal for the Oakland A’s (70-57) since they began the season with six straight losses against the Astros and Dodgers. Objectively, the team isn’t out of contention. After all, today is the first time since April 16 that the A’s haven’t occupied a play off qualifying position in the standings chart. But three straight blown late inning leads are not the stuff championship dreams are made of. The A’s took another dive again losing their eighth out of ten games this time to the Seattle Mariners (69-58) 5-1.

Oakland came out of the chute strong. After Mark Canha led off by lining out to first, Starling Marte, Matt Olson, and Mitch Moreland, playing first and leaving DH duty to Matt Olson, jumped all over Mariner starter Chris Flexen (10-5, 3.65 going into the game) with singles, each to a different outfielder, to put the home team up, 1-0. But Josh Harrison flew out to left, and Matt Chapman, back in the line up, struck out swinging.

One run leads have not been particularly encouraging to Oakland fans these days, and this one didn’t last long. With one out in the second, Cole Irvin, who brought a 9-11, 3.57 record with him to the mound at game time, surendered a double to Luis Torrens, followed by singles to Tom Murphy and Jarred Kelenic, and, just like that, the teams were tied at one.

It didn’t stay that way long. An Andrus to Harrison to Moreland 6-4-3 double play wiped out Haniger’s lead off walk in the Seattle third. Undaunted, Kyle Seager singled to right, and Abraham Torro lashed a line drive that hit the right field fence on a one hop for double, with Seager going to third.

DH Luis Torrens brought both of them home with a clean single to right. When Tom Murphy, the M’s catcher, walked on a 3-2 count, the work day began early in the Oakland bull pen. But Irvin settled down enough to retire Jarred Kalenic on a ground out to Harrison, leaving the visitors’ advantage at 3-1.

Nonetheless, Deolis Guerra came out of the pen to start the fourth. The three runs Irvin had allowed were all earned; they came on seven hits and two walks. He threw 66 pitches during his brief tenure on the mound; 40 of them counted as strikes. After the game, Bob Melvin said that he had removed his starter as a precautionary measure involving a hip issue.

Guerra stayed in the game for three innings, over which he struck out five Mariners while walking only one. That was the only base runner he allowed. Of his 48 pitcches, 32 were in the strike column. AJ Puk took over for him to start the seventh.

After the A’s took their early and short lived lead in the first, it took them until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh to get another runner as far as second base. The runner was Elvis Andrus, whose curving line drive landed just inside the left field foul line before bouncing into the corner while the A’s shortstop cruised to second.

Flexen then walked Canha, and that completed the day’s chores for the Seattle starter. Marte swung on Drew Streckenrider’s first offering and flew out to Haniger in right.

Flexen’s line was 6-2/3 innings of one run ball. That run was earned. He allowed six hits and one walk and hit one batter while striking out five. His pitch count was 105, including 66 strikes. When the dust settled, he was the winning pitcher, with a record of 11-5, 3.54.

Puk shut the Mariners out in the seventh but, after striking out Toro and Torrens to open the next frame, gave up a single to the weak hitting Tom Murphy, an RBI to the even weaker hitting Jarrede Kelenic, and an RBI single to the non threatening Dylan Moore.

After that, Yusmeiro Petit, making his 500th big league appearance, induced an inning ending fly out to center from Crawford. When the Mariners came up in the top of the ninth, still leading 3-1, Burch Smith was on the bump. Two line drives and a fly ball to center field later, he was back in the dugout as the A’s took their last licks against Streckenrider.

Chapman and Kemp went down meekly, a strike out and fly to left center, respectively. But Sean Murphy kept a flicker of hope alive for the downtrodden Athletics by lacing a double down the left field line. Andrus’ ground out to short stranded him there.

Irvin was charged with the loss, and his record now stands at 9-12, 3.68. The save went to Streckenrider, his sixth

Oakland dropped to four games behind Houston, who will play Kansas City tonight, in the division race. Seattle trails the A’s by a single game. The Athletics will have a day off tomorrow before opening a four game series against the Yankees. Thursday’s starters the Yankees will go with Jameson Taillon (8-4 ERA 3.94) for the A’s James Kaprielian (7-4, 3.25) to start the first game of that series a 6:40 first pitch at the Oakland Coliseum.