Seattle Mariners Leody Taveras (4) steals second base on Sacramento Athletics second baseman Luis Urias (17) in the top of the eighth inning at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento on Wed May 7, 2025 (AP News photo)

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Sutter Health Park

West Sacramento, California

Seattle Mariners 6 (22-14)

Sacramento Athletics 5 (20-18)

Win: Eduard Bazardo (1-0)

Loss: Noah Murdock (1-1)

Save: Andres Munoz (13)

Time: 2:58

Attendance: 9,657

By Stephen Ruderman

WEST SACRAMENTO–For the second day in a row, the Sacramento A’s blew a late lead and lost a tough one, as the Seattle Mariners came back from down 5-0 to take the series with a 6-5 win.

Wednesday, the A’s looked to win a series against the Mariners, who went into Sunday riding high on a six-game winning streak. The A’s came mighty close last night, but the Mariners scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning off Tyler Ferguson to hand the A’s a tough loss.

Leading the charge for Sacramento, as they looked to bounce back today would be Gunnar Hoglund making his second big league start. In his major league debut in Miami last Friday, he gave up just a run and struck out seven against the Marlins. Wednesday, Hoglund would be tested against one of the stronger teams in Baseball.

Hoglund started off nicely with a scoreless top of the first inning. The A’s offense was then ready to give him some support in the bottom of the first against Mariners’ starter Bryan Woo.

Jacob Wilson started the inning with an infield hit, and Tyler Soderstrom singled him over to third base. Brent Rooker was unable to get the job done, as he popped out to second-baseman Dylan Moore. That brought up Miguel Andujar, who grounded a single into left field that put the A’s on the board.

JJ Bleday then came up, and he lined a double out into the gap in right-center that scored a pair to make it 3-0. The A’s were unable to add on any further, but they had made an early statement following their tough loss Tuesday night.

Hoglund pitched two more scoreless innings in the second and third, and he threw his first one, two, three inning of the day in the top of the fourth.

Lawrence Butler led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to right-center to make it 4-0. Seth Brown then singled with one out, and advanced to second on a ground out by Jhonny Pereda. Wilson came up with two outs, and slashed a double off the end of the bat that deflected off the glove of the diving first-baseman, Rowdy Tellez, down the right field line. That knocked in Brown, and the A’s now led it 5-0.

Perhaps, things were coming too easily for the A’s. The fact of the matter was that they were not going to be able to take two of three from a strong Mariners’ team without a fight.

Dylan Moore lined a base-hit to right with one out in the top of the fifth and stole second. Ben Williamson came up, and he shot a double just over the glove of left-fielder Seth Brown and into the gap in left-center to put the Mariners on the board.

Hoglund walked Cal Raleigh with one out in the top of the sixth, and that did it for the A’s young righty. In came Mitch Spence, who walked Randy Arozarena to put runners at first and second with one out for Seattle. Tellez came up and gulfed a three-run shot to right, and suddenly it was 5-4.

It was an unfortunate end to what was otherwise another solid outing by Hoglund, who ended up getting tagged for four runs.

Woo, who had hung in there despite the rough innings he faced in the first and fourth, finished his day with a scoreless bottom of sixth.

T.J. McFarland retired the first two men he faced in the top of the seventh, but he gave up a double to Jorge Polanco with two outs. Noah Murdock came in and got Julio Rodriguez to ground out to keep the A’s ahead.

Unfortunately, Murdock and the A’s would not be as lucky in the top of the eighth. Arozarena walked with one out, and Miles Mastrobuoni pinch-ran and stole second. Murdock was a strike away from getting out of the inning, as he was ahead of Leody Taveras 1-2, but Taveras grounded one just past the diving third-baseman, Miguel Andujar into left field for a base-hit. Mastrobuoni, and the game was tied.

Taveras then stole second, and Moore lined a double to right-center field to give the Mariners their first lead of the day. For the second day in a row, the A’s had blown a late lead, but you really have to give credit to the Mariners, who are just a good team.

Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier combined for a one, two, three bottom of the eighth. Mariners’ closer Andres Munoz came in for the bottom of the ninth, and while Luis Urias led off the inning with a base-hit, Munoz retired the next three to end it.

Eduard Buzardo got the win for the Mariners; Noah Murdock took the loss; and Andres Munoz picked up his 13th save.

The A’s fall to 20-18, and they will have to face another good team in the Yankees, who will make their first trip to Sacramento over the weekend.

Aaron Judge and the Yankees will indeed come in with their torpedo bats—though Judge does not use one—to hit home runs out of the most intimate ballpark in Major League Baseball starting Friday night.

Osvaldo Bido (2-2, 4.71 ERA) will take the ball in the series opener for Sacramento on Friday. He will be opposed by Yankees’ right-hander, Will Warren (1-2, 5.65 ERA). First pitch will be at 7:05 p.m.