Seattle Mariners’ Jesse Winker, right, smashes an RBI double in front of Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy (12) in the top of the sixth inning at the Oakland Coliseum Tue, Jun 21, 2022. (AP News photo)

Seattle. 8. 12. 0

Oakland. 2. 7. 0

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Oakland Athletics opened their three game series against the Seattle Mariners hoping to extend their one game winning streak that left them at 23-45 to 24-45.

They failed miserably, and when all was said and done, the green and gold’s record had fallen to an abysmal 23-46, dropping them to seven games behind the visiting Mariners in the battle for fourth place in the five team division. Seattle had entered the fray at 29-39 and emerged from it with a balance of 30-39

The team from the Puget Sound sent Marco González, 30 year old southpaw veteran of eight big league campaigns, who had been the first round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2013 draft.

He brought a 3-7, 3.41 record with him and left after eight innings of excellent work, having allowed two runs, both earned, on seven hits, one of which went yard, and a walk bringing his ERA down to 3.33. He threw 101 pitches, 73 qualifying as strikes, on the way to earning his fourth win of the year against seven defeats.

The starting pitcher for the East Bay contingent was 28 year old right hander James Kaprielian, sporting the unenviable record of 0-5, 6.31. He didn’t perform in his only 2022 appearance against Seattle, a game the A’s won 7-5 at T-Mobile Park on May 24. He threw five innings and was responsible for all of the Mariners’ runs, and they were earned.

Tonight, he pitched well for five frames before being driven from the mound with one out in the Seattle sixth. He gave two runs, both earned, on five hits, one of which went the distance, two walks, and a hit batter. He struck out seven and had a pitch count of 89, 32 of which were balls.

There were a couple of faces in the A’s lineup we hadn’t seen in a while. Sheldon Neuse was at the hot corner, batting seventh, and Nick Allen followed him in the batting order and covering second. Both of them, along with southpaw reliever Kirby Snead, were recalled from Las Vegas earlier today.

In other roster moves announced today, Domingo Tapia was added to the roster as a substitute player. Dany Jiménez was added to the 15 day IL retroactive to Monday, Sam Moll was put on the Covid 19 list, and Matt Davidson was DFA’d. Luis Barrera, who had contributed significantly at the bat and on the field in Sunday’s win over Kansas City was optioned back to the Aviators yesterday shortly on Monday.

Taylor Trammell put the Mariners one up by depositing Karprielian’s first offering of the third, a 94 mph four seamer, 399 feet, over the fence in dead center field. It was his third home run and eighth RBI of the season.

A hit batter and a double play later, Ty France bounced a ball just over Christian Bethanccourt’s head, down the first base line and stretched it into a two base hit. The A’s challenged Nic Lentz’s safe call, but it was, correctly, upheld. So, after two and a half frames, Oakland was on the short end of a 1-0 score.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth, when Julio Rodríguez led off with a single to left and raced home on the double that Jessel Winker lined into the right field corner. Eugenio Suárez followed that with a fly that Pinder chased down at the left center field wall in front of the Ray Fosse sign.

That was it for Kaprielian, who was relieved by the newly returned Kirby Snead, who ended the threat by getting Justin Upton to fly out to right and picking off Dylan Moore, who had pinch hit for Adam Frazier and received an intentional pass.

Kirby walked Taylor Trammell and Cal Raleigh to open the top of the seventh, throwing in a wild pitch that allowed the former to take second while the latter was at bat. Then he showed himself to be his own best friend by inducing JP Crawford to bounce into a 1-6-3 double play.

This brought Austin Pruitt out of the bullpen and on to the mound. He should have stayed in the bullpen. Ty France singled up the middle to bring in Trammell with Seattle’s third tally, which was charged to Snead.

He followed this up by surrendering back to back to back blasts to Julio Rodríguez, Winker, and Suárez. Those round trippers measured 445, 439, and 411 feet respectively. Pruitt finally retired the side by striking out Moore. Oakland now trailed 7-0.

Their bats finally woke up in the home seventh, thanks to the returning infielders. Neuse hit a one single to right center and trotted home on Allen’s two out 378 foot four bagger that landed in the left field seats, 378 feet from home. It came off a 79 mph change up and cut the M’s margin to 7-2.

It was no surprise that Pruitt didn’t come out to pitch the eighth after his disastrous third of an inning on the mound. Adam Oller took care of that frame. In spite of a two out double, confirmed on review, again correctly, by Raleigh, Oller held the score to 7-2.

He didn’t do as well in the visitors’ ninth. After surrendering a single to France, he hit Rodríguez with a pitch and loaded the bases with a walk to Winker. He almost pulled a Houdini, retiring Suárez on an infield fly and fanning Moore. But Justin Upton singled to left, driving in only one run, thanks to baseball´s don’t rub it in unwritten rule. So the A’s went into the ninth with an 8-2 deficit.

Erik Swanson set the A’s down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Ken Giles did the same in the ninth

The same teams will play each other tomorrow at 6:40 with George Kirby (1-2, 3.56) pitching for the M’s and hard luck Paul Blackburn (6-2, 2.26) going for the A’s in a battle of right handers.