Oakland A’s Joey Estes throws here in the top of the first inning against the Seattle Mariners. Estes had a perfect game going into the sixth inning until the M’s JP Crawford hit a double to break it up at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed Jun 5, 2024 (AP News photo)

Seattle (35-28). 000 000 001. 1. 4. 2

Athletics (25-28). 001 010 00x. 2. 5. 0

Time: 2:14

Attendance: 9,735

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–This decidedly non-Oaklandishly warm evening promised a slug fest. Instead we got a beautiful pitchers duel, fron which the Athletics, who had lost five of their last six games, emerged victorious by the slimmest of margins, 2-1.

When the A’s first submitted their lineup to MLB they named Luis Medina as their starting pitcher. Between then and game time Joey Estes , a right hander who had a 1-1, 5.50 mark in four games, all as a starter, against the M’s, had taken his place.

Estes is somewhat of a Mariners specialist; those four starts represent 56% of his major league career total. The 22 year old came to work with a season record of 1-1, 6.10. His work this evening was outstanding. He was perfect and went home with the win, which improved his numbers to 2-1, 4.67. He threw 6-1/3 innings and allowed exactly one hit. 58 of his 78 deliveries were strikes, and struck out five Mariners.

On the hump for the Mariners was Logan Gilbert, their first round draft choice (14th overall) in the 2018 draft. You could see why no one on the Seattle staff started more games in 2023 than he did. The 27 year old righty pitched seven innings of five hit baseball, allowing two runs, only one of which was earned, striking out five and not walking anyone. One of the five hits against him, however, was a home run. The tough loss left him 3-4, 3.12. The crew from Puget Sound used one other hurler. Mike Bauman pitched a perfect bottom of the eighth.

Neither team put a man on base until Zack Gelof broke the ice with one down in the bottom of the third. He smacked Gilbert’s first pitch four seamer 399 feet into the seats, over the State Farm advertisement in right field. It gave the A’s second baseman 13 RBI for the year.

The A’s picked up another run in the bottom of the fifth. It was unearned, but that doesn’t mean that Gilbert was faultless. With Daz Cameron on first with a one out single, Gilbert tried to pick him off. His throw went past first baseman Ty France, and Cameron scampered to third. He didn’t stay there long. With Gelof, the next hitter, at bat, catcher Clal Raleigh couldn’t handle a low pitch, and Cameron scored on the resultant passed ball.

Estes was impenetrable for 70 pitches over six frames. JP Crawford’s first pitch leadoff double in the seventh broke the spell. Estes got one more out and gave way to Austin Adams, who walked Julio Rodríguez, got Raleigh to fly out to center, and hit France with a pitch to load the bases. That was it for Adams. In came TJ McFarland who got pinch hitter Mitch Garver to ground out to short on a 3-2 pitch.

The top of the eighth was a hairy inning for the A’s. Seattle’s first two batters, Mitch Haniger and Dominic Canzone, singled off TJ McFarland, who’d taken over mound duties for the green and gold. McFarland then fanned Moore and gave way to Mason Miller, who got Crawford out on a fly to left center and Rojas on a grounder to Gelof.

The once invincible Miller came out in the ninth to attempt a five out save. He went to a full count on the first batter, Rodríguez and then threw him a 102 mph four seam fastball. The Mariners’ center fielder sent the ball to center field, over the fence for a 402 foot home run, his fifth round tripper of the season.

The A’s lead had dwindled to 2-1. But Miller recovered and, after walking Raleigh, struck out France and got Victor Robles, who had replaced Garver, to ground into a game ending 6-4-3 twin killing. It was Miller’s 12th save in 13 opportunities.

Thursday the sixth, JP Sears (4-4, 4.01) will go for the A’s. (Unless, Mark Kotsay makes another inspired last minute decision). He’ll face Bryan Woo (2-0, 13). The first pitch is scheduled for 12:37.