Oakland A’s pitcher Paul Blackburn throws to the Seattle Mariners line up at T Mobile Field in Seattle. Blackburn got lit up by the M’s four seven hits and seven runs over four innings of work on Fri May 10, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (18-22) had a rocky start to their series up in Seattle against the Mariners (21-18) Friday night. There was not much hitting through the first six innings for the A’s and Paul Blackburn only lasted four innings on the mound giving up 7 hits and 7 runs.

Coupled with lack of offense from Oakland as well as some very productive offense from Seattle, they built a 7-0 lead going into the seventh inning.

The Mariners would tack on one more run in the seventh inning for a 8-1 finish at T Mobile Field in Seattle. Oakland’s Lawrence Butler singled in the ninth driving Kyle McCann home. The A’s loaded the bases in the top of the ninth inning but left the runners stranded.

Game recap: There was not much going on through the first three innings for either team. It was a one, two, three fourth inning for Seattle’s Bryan Woo. Paul Blackburn did not follow suit in fact he allowed five Seattle runs in the bottom of the fourth.

He had back-to-back walks and later on in the inning allowed a couple of doubles and a Dylan Moore home run for a 5-0 lead through four innings. The Mariners had turned this game inside-out. Oakland had a lot of work to do going into the fifth inning.

Seattle’s Bryan Woo, in his first start of the season, exited the game in the fifth inning. He had been struggling with elbow inflammation in the pre-season and he began to show signs of some discomfort putting a damper on his return to the mound.

After one of the trainers came out and evaluated Woo’s elbow it was determined that he was done for the evening. Trent Thornton would relieve Woo in the fifth inning after Woo’s 62nd pitch of the evening.

Paul Blackburn continued to struggle giving up a couple of singles and a walk loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. A change was made on the mound for Oakland and Tyler Ferguson took over trying to get out of a very sticky situation.

He was looking to stop the bleeding. A ground out, a strike out and Thornton was one out away from getting out of the inning. With the two outs, the Mariners Dylan Moore singled driving in two more runs and Seattle was cruising 7-0.

This game went into the sixth inning and the A’s had only two hits so far in this game. The Mariners were completely outhitting Oakland through five innings with 8 hits; a home run, a couple of doubles and a single.

The game went into the seventh inning with Seattle holding onto a comfortable lead 7-0. Oakland’s Easton Lucas who relieved Ferguson had a terrific sixth inning closing out the inning with three straight punch outs.

The Mariners scored another run in the bottom of the seventh inning winning this game 8-1. The A’s got a couple of singles in the top of the ninth inning from Kyle McCann and Tyler Soderstrom with Lawrence Butler driving McCann home and the A’s had avoided the shut out.

They did load the bases in the top of the ninth inning leaving three runners stranded. This was not the way that Oakland wanted to start this road trip. They finished this game with seven hits, loading the bases in the ninth but it was too little too late.

Post game notes: The A’s are coming off a disappointing four game series with the Texas Rangers at the Coliseum this past week. They only managed a single win, the first game of a double-header in the final third and fourth game of the series on Wednesday . The A’s in Seattle Friday night took a tough loss from the Mariners in an eight difference. Oakland is still holding down third place in the American League West although dropping seven below five hundred after Friday’s shelling but remain four games out of first place.

Friday night Blackburn for the A’s got racked up pitching four plus innings surrendering seven hits and seven runs and Bryan Woo for the Mariners went 4.1 innings held the A’s to just one hit, no runs, and struck out one and walked three. Blackburn’s ERA was raised to 4.11 and dropped to 3-2 on his win/loss record. He had been having success this season and but Friday night against an aggressive and seeing eye M’s line up Blackburn was just simply overmatched.

Saturday night the A’s will take on the Mariners in game two of their series. This will be an evening game with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 PM. Joey Estes will be on the mound for the A’s with a 0-0, 6.04 ERA and Bryce Miller will get the nod for the Mariners with a 3-2, 2.61 ERA. Oakland will be looking for some more productive offensive work on Saturday night.