Category: Oakland Athletics

The A’s finally win a game in extra innings, defeat the Yankees 4-3.

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Image result for brett lawrie athletics

It was a hot and humid evening in the Big Apple Tuesday night as the A’s squared off against the New York Yankees. The A’s ace, Sonny Gray pitched for the first time since June 25th. Gray was a little rusty as he gave up two runs in the first inning. He settled down and allowed just one more run in his seven innings of work. Gray did not get a decision, but the A’s came back  from a 3-2 deficit to beat the vaunted Yankee bullpen to win 4-3 in ten innings. Nathan Eovaldi started for New York.  Eovaldi went five and 1/3rd innings and left the game with the Yankees leading 3-2.

The A’s scored a run in the top of the first. Josh Reddick, hitting with two out, singled to center to drive in Stephen Vogt with the first run of the game. The Yankees came back and took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. The A’s tied the game when Stephen Vogt singled to drive in Marcus Semien. The Yankees regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth when Yankee shortstop drove in Brian McCann to make it a 3-2 game in favor of New York.

The A’s tied the game in the top of the sixth inning. Yankee Manager lifted Eovaldi with one out in the sixth. Girardi did not want Eovaldi to pitch to Josh Reddick. He brought in lefty Chasen Shreve to face Reddick and Shreve did the job retiring Reddick. However, the next batter Billy Butler homered on the first pitch from Shreve to tie the game. It was Butler’s seventh home run of the year.

The game remained tied until the top of the tenth inning. A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie, who had struck out three times so far in the game, smoked a Dellin Betances’ hanging breaking ball into the left-field seats to put the A’s ahead. Closer Tyler Clippard walked two batters but came through by striking out Yankee slugger Mark Teixeira to end the game.

Game Notes- The pitching line for Sonny Gray was seven innings pitched, six hits, three runs and he struck out five. Drew Pomeranz received credit for the win and Tyler Clippard recorded his sixteenth save of the year. Dellin Betances took the loss for New York. The A’s are now 39-47 for the year and the Yankees fall to 44-39. The A’s have won four of the five game played between the teams so far this year. The extra-inning win was the first for the A’s since September 21, 2014.

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: Don’t let Sonny Gray pitch in the All-Star game, save a player, save an arm

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by Charlie O Mallonee

NEW YORK–A’s starting pitcher Sonny Gray is the key of the A’s staff and has literally lifted this team and put them on his back and carried this team with that 9-3, 2.90 ERA record. They have done very well even though Gray missed the last two starts because of a case of salmonella. However Gray is back in the saddle today. Gray started Tuesday and one thing about him is the fact that him being in the rotation and being scheduled to pitch on Sunday in Cleveland which everyone assumes he’s ineligible to pitch on Tuesday in Cincinnati by league rules.

That as it turns out is not the case Gray is planning to pitch Sunday is Cleveland and the A’s should absolutely pitch him Sunday in Cleveland because they need all the victories they can give him. Their going to pitch him Sunday in Cleveland but by league rules if the club agrees he can pitch on Tuesday. My initial reaction to that is absolutely no, no, no and just let me repeat myself NO.

The last thing the A’s need to do at this point is take a chance and put Gray in some potential peril and then not have him down the stretch when their trying to get out of last place and their trying to make things happen. However I’m going to temper my no by the fact of doing a little research today is that on Tuesday would be Sonny’s normal day to pitch bullpen in between starts.

So now you come back and you have to make a decision do they let him go ahead and step it up a little bit throw the normal bullpen and let him step it up and let him do a normal inning in the All-Star game in which he’s the most deserved of. My conservative self comes out and says let him go to the game, let him get his jersey, let him get his party bags, let him get everything that goes with it and the bonus from the Oakland A’s.

Then the A’s say, “Sonny wave at all of them and go and sit I in the bullpen and enjoy the guys.” I just don’t think it’s worth the chance, it’s a shame but when your dealing with pitchers it’s always a luck of the draw and in this case it’s not a great draw but the good luck is Sonny’s back the A’s need him let him be known as an All-Star please don’t let him pitch in that All-Star game.

Charlie O does Oakland A’s commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

The Green and Gold meet the Bronx Bombers in NYC Tuesday Night

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s hit the road Monday traveling to the Big Apple to play a three-game series with the Yankees before heading off to Cleveland for another three-game series with the Indians before the All-Star break.

The A’s finished their ten-game homestand with a record of 4-6. The Kansas City Royals swept the A’s three straight but the Green and Gold rebounded to take two out of three from the Colorado Rockies and then split a four-=game series with the Seattle Mariners. Oakland’s starting pitching has been excellent this year. The A’s, who were sixteen games under.500 earlier in the season, are playing well as they are benefiting from improved fielding and better performance from their bullpen.  The A’s are currently last in last place in the AL West with a record of 38-47, but they have a winning record since May 23rd.

The A’s will be meeting the Yankees for the second time this season. The Yankees were here in Oakland at the end of May for four games, and the A’s took the series three games to one. New York has been playing well as of late, and the Yanks have moved into first place in the AL East with a record of 44-38 and have a one-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles.

The Yankees have had several key players on the DL this year but are still playing winning baseball. Centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury will come off the DL Wednesday night. Pitcher Ivan Nova is back from Tommy John surgery and has made three starts. Carlos Beltran is also on the DL.

The Yankees big boppers include designated hitter, Alex Rodriguez, first baseman Mark Teixeira, catcher Brian McCann, third baseman Chase Headly, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner.

A-Rod, on the comeback trail after being suspended last year for PED use, is performing well. He is hitting .271 with sixteen home runs and 47 RBI. Teixeira’s average is just .243, but he has twenty homers and is leading the AL with 59 RBIs.

The first game of the series will feature the A’s ace, Sonny Gray going against the Yankees’ Nathan Eovaldi, Gray,  named to the All-Star team Monday, missed his last two starts due to a salmonella infection. Gray has a record of 9-3 and an ERA of just 2.09. Eovaldi’s record for the Yankees is 8-2, and his ERA comes in at 4.52.

The second game of the series will feature a battle of two lefties. Scott Kazmir will go for Oakland and C.C.Sabathia will be on the hill for New York. Kazmir has pitched much better than his record would indicate. Kazmir has been the subject of much speculation this year as he will be a free agent at the end of the season.  Many teams are hoping that the A’s will be sellers and that Kazmir will be dealt before the July 31st trade deadline. Reports had several scouts checking him out last week in Oakland. Sabathia has struggled this year. His won-loss record in 3-8 and he his ERA is a whopping 5.59.

The A’s bullpen, as mentioned earlier, has improved. Lefty Drew Pomeranz has done well coming out of the bullpen either to pitch ans inning or a specialist, coming in to face a left-handed batter. Evan Scribner has faltered somewhat but has been good all year. Tyler Clippard has done his job as closer much to the delight of A’s manager Bob Melvin.

The Yankees starting rotation has had health issues all season. Masahiro Tanaka was shut down last season due to an elbow injury and has made just ten starts in 2015. Ivan Nova has returned from Tommy John surgery and had two good outings and one not-so-good outing. His record is 1-2. Eovaldi (8-2) and Michael Pineda lead the Yanks with eight wins each. Adam Warren is the fifth starter, and he has a record of 5-5. Lefty Andrew Miller was doing an excellent job as closer for the Yanks until he was injured. Miller recorded seventeen saves before going on the DL.and is scheduled to pitch an inning for Triple-A Scranton Monday Night. Dellin Betances took over the closer role and has been lights out. Betances was superb last year in a setup role and has appeared in 37 games this year with a won-loss record of 5-1 and seven saves to his credit. He has struck out 68 men in just 42 innings of work. His ERA is 1.50 with a WHIP of 0.86.

Sonny Gray and A’s catcher Stephen Vogt have been named to the American League All-Star team. The honor is well-deserved.

The A’s announced that they have obtained right-handed minor league reliever Aaron Kurcz from the Atlanta Braves for international slot number 113 which corresponds to the right to spend $167,000 on international signings during the 2015-16 signing period without incurring penalties. This is the second time the A’s have traded an international bonus slot for a Braves pitcher in a week. The A’s acquired Cody Martin for slot 53 on July 2.

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: How much is television and technology changing baseball?

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Following baseball all of my adult life,and since the first days as a small kid, the great game of baseball is going through some changes. Three are clocks in all 30 major league parks, so that every half inning moves at the same pace, plus other changes that have have shorten the duration of the games, the replays, the strike-zone. Most of these changes in which technology have been introduced to the games are coming for the benefit of television, which is a huge revenue stream for Major League Baseball.

A couple of years ago Time Warner Cable paid $7 billion dollars to the LA Dodgers for the rights to broadcast their games for the next 20-years. Today we know that they are set to lose $1 billion because Time Warner cable had required other cable distributors to pay an increase in fees. These increases are passed to the viewing public in the huge Southern California television market. The LA Dodgers have also lost a great amount of viewers, because of this discontent by Dodgers fans, many who refuse to pay the extra money to see their favorite team on the tube.

Nevertheless, television is now basically the engine that generates the big bucks in Major League Baseball. At the start of this 2015 season, the MLB Network,a network solely dedicated to baseball is primarily owned by Major League Baseball and is available to 70 million households via cable and satellite television.

All replays of every game(disputed plays)are reviewed from New York, but next season Major League Baseball will open another review location in San Francisco, which will be more convenient, for the late games held here in the west coast, instead of having to go to New York on an extra inning game at Oakland which is at 11:45PM(west coast time)that is reviewed in New York where it is 2:45 in the morning. It makes sense to open this other review office in San Francisco.

But the old saying “we cannot put the toothpaste back inside the tube”, technology is part of our lives. I am personally not a fan of the “replay”which takes a lot of the human factor from this unique game that we love. Yes, we can see the mistakes the umpires make today with this new system of replays, but umpires are human and they will always make mistakes. Teams also make mistakes, they are called “errors”, are we going to change that also in the future? What would baseball look 20 years from today? Would anybody be surprised if umpires are replaced with machines in each base? A lot of bank tellers were replaced by ATM machines. Think about it, more changes are possible and probably 20 years from today baseball will not even look close to the same as today.

This is just my opinion. You might agree or disagree. I am not an enemy of technology, or progress, I like the instant communications, although I do not have to be attached to twitter or instagram.

Baseball is a unique game, it has it own pace, and its own choreography, we should not mess too much with it, or basically it will not be baseball anymore, it could; become some sort of a live video game of we keep making changes.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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Season in a microcosm: A’s agonizing 2-1 loss to Seattle looks all too familiar

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Cruz control

By Morris Phillips

One day after an impressive win—and a sign of progress—the A’s took a step back in a 2-1 loss to the Mariners.  Of course, what’s painful is the repetitive nature of the losses.

Once again, the A’s struck early, but then went silent.  And while the opponent didn’t have success early with the A’s effective starting pitching, they did have success later on.

And yes, narrow losses are a reoccuring theme: after Sunday’s loss, the A’s are a major-league worst 6-21 in one-run ballgames.  Afterwards, Bob Melvin was so obviously in a place he had been before, the manager practically answered the questions before they could be asked.

“A lot of times, you’ll be in a good position if you only give up two runs,” Melvin replied when asked how Chris Bassitt acquitted himself in his second, effective start this week in place of the under-the-weather Sonny Gray.  Somehow, Bassitt parlayed four singles, one damaging double, a walk and hit batsman over nearly six full innings into a loss.

“Our overall numbers are pretty good.  We go on streaks where we’re not so good,” Melvin offered when asked how come the A’s offense sputters so bad in big spots. The A’s have scored the fourth most runs in the American League to support a pitching staff that ranks first in ERA, yet the team’s been mired in last place for nearly two months.

Oh well, the A’s just aren’t very good.  Except for it’s not that simple: since May 23—a period in which every major league team has played at least 37 games—the A’s have the the fourth best record in baseball (24-17).

Okay, the A’s have potential.  But when will it be realized?  In a division where the Astros have been good, not great, just better than everyone else in the AL West, everything is still up for grabs.  The A’s still have time to strike, just not much time.  With a week to go before the All-Star break, Oakland needs to make up 10 ½ games.

Experience is an issue, and a logical explanation for the team’s inability to come up big in big spots.  Just take the Mariners’ game-winning rally.  Bassitt’s cruising, two-thirds of the way through the sixth inning when he hits Robinson Cano in the ankle on a 1-2 pitch.  After a lengthy break for Cano to gather himself and stay in the game, the A’s bullpen remains quiet.  But the next pitch is slammed by Nelson Cruz for a double, the only extra-base hit allowed all day by Oakland pitching.  Now the A’s bullpen is stirring, but not quick enough to assume the next batter–former Athletic Seth Smith–who battles the count full and delivers a two-run single.

Cano, Cruz and Smith would account for only two hits on Sunday, but they had the presence to squeeze those two hits into a seven-pitch sequence that would win the game.  Melvin could have had his bullpen going, but that’s a fully debatable call.  And Bassitt was despondent after the game, feeling remorse for not starting enough (only 13 of 23) hitters off with a strike.

Unlike the three batters that would beat him, Bassitt has limited major league experience.  After Sunday, he’s thrown just 46 innings at the big league level.  And his self-evaluation was flawed in that he bemoaned his lack of first pitch strikes, yet against the only hitters that truly mattered, Bassitt started Cano and Smith with strikes and had Cano 0-2 before he hit him, and Smith 2-2 before he allowed the game-winning base hit.

So what really hurt Bassitt?  Probably not gathering himself after hitting Cano.  Cruz, the veteran hitter knew to look for something in the zone after Bassitt’s mechanics failed against Cano, and sure enough , he got it.

Coming through in big moments has been a problem, especially against Seattle.  In the first 10 0f 19 total games between the Mariners and A’s, Oakland’s scored 43 runs and won three times.  Seattle’s scored 39 runs and won seven times.

Elevating their game, putting away hitters, coming up with the clutch hit—the more nuanced aspects of the game—are the things eluding the A’s, at least for now.

On Tuesday, the A’s resume play in Yankee Stadium to open a six-game road trip with Gray making his return to the rotation in a matchup with New York’s Nathan Eovaldi.

Kingdom toppled: A’s stand up to Felix Hernandez in 2-0 shutout win

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Speedy Burns

By Morris Phillips

Call it Independence Day for more than reason: ownership of the Oakland A’s is no longer held by King Felix Hernandez.

The Mariners’ ace hadn’t lost a start at the O.co Coliseum in seven seasons until the A’s stood up to Hernandez and the Mariners on Saturday in an impressive 2-0 win.  Hernandez had gone 13 starts without a loss dating back to 2008, and thanks to a big effort from Kendall Graveman, fell at the Coliseum for only the third time in 21 career starts at 66th and Hegenberger.

“He’s just handed it to us here at home,” manager Bob Melvin said.  “It’s not like he pitched poorly today.  He didn’t have his best stuff and he wiggled out of a bunch of jams.”

“Today they found the holes,” Hernandez admitted.  “That’s the way it goes.”

The A’s have lost a bunch of close games thus far in 2015, not to mention their struggles in day games, which didn’t make it likely that they could get Hernandez off their collective backs.  But since a disastrous start, the A’s have made steady, subtle improvement—winning 24 of 40—and it continued Saturday thanks to Graveman.

The A’s starter—now sporting a 1.78 ERA in nine starts since an early season demotion to the minors—was fantastic, pitching seven innings allowing five hits.  Graveman has made himself into a Rookie of the Year candidate, winning for the sixth time, and forging a 16-inning scoreless streak in the process.

But given the A’s painful rebuild after holding the majors’ best record after 100 games last season, just one ROY candidate might not be enough.  That’s where Billy Burns comes in, and he found his way around the bases against Hernandez in just the first seven pitches of the ballgame.

The speedy Burns singled on the game’s first pitch, then three pitches later, stole second.  Stephen Vogt walked on the next pitch, and Ben Zobrist singled in Burns on pitch number seven.

Hernandez would work out of the quickly-created jam, and then again in the second inning.  From Melvin’s standpoint, it appeared the A’s had squandered a pair of critical opportunities.  Despite registering 10 hits, the A’s would score only one more run—in the seventh—off Hernandez.

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News, and Commentary: Kings-Karl will sort out problems; FBI investigates former Cards scouting director

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The hole is already dug in at the old downtown mall in Sacramento and with Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson testifying in court that the city didn’t abuse using subsidies to construct in the making of the new Kings arena the project is going to go forward regardless what the plaintiffs in that case say about how the city used public subsidies to pay of the area costs.

Hopefully everything goes right and the Kings can start winning again and Kings head coach George Karl improves his relationship with the Kings DeMarcus Cousins in a famous off season challenge where Karl wanted Cousins traded and Cousins was sought by Boston or the Lakers who both came shopping with their hats in their hands.

Karl was also on the chopping block when the skirmish was taking place when team owner Vivek Ranadive suggested that Karl should be fired if he doesn’t want to cooperate and work with Cousins. Since Kings owner Vivek Ranadive made the suggestion of firing Karl there hasn’t been any further word from either Ranadive, Karl or Cousins and who is staying or going. Karl is very good when it comes to draft picks. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he became a general manager somewhere in the NBA. Karl is someone who I got to work with when he used to coach the Golden State Warriors.

Karl is very savvy when it comes to basketball and he’s a good guy and he wants to win and he’s a very intense head coach. I have a lot of respect for Karl. The Kings and Ranadive also realized what they have and their trying to work things out to a happy medium. You have to stay with him and he knows what he’s doing and he’s not some regular coach he’s a special coach in the NBA and he knows the game inside and out.

FBI continues to investigate Cards into Astros hacking case: With former Cardinals head of scouting Chris Correa out the FBI is continuing their investigation if there were anymore Cardinals that hacked the Astros beside Correa who is accused of allegedly hacking into the Houston Astros scouting records. Hacking never was a normal thing but it seems ironically the Cards are still a first place team with a 51-28 record as of Saturday with a six game lead over Pittsburgh with the best record in baseball.

The Houston Astros have a decent record themselves leading the American League West with a 48-34 first place record and five game lead and the alleged scouting records of Houston Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow and other possible other team scouts who might have been hacked. Luhnow says that he had changed his passwords before leaving the Cardinals to come to the Astros and had the good high tech etiquette to make the change, “I absolutely know about password hygiene and best practices. I’m certainly aware how important passwords are, as well as the importance of keeping them updated. A lot of my job in baseball, as it was in high tech, is to make sure intellectual property is protected. I take that seriously and hold myself and those who work for me to a very high standard.” said Luhnow.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Four Two-Run Homers Sink Athletics, lose 9-5 to Mariners

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OAKLAND, CA - JULY 03: Evan Scribner #58 of the Oakland Athletics walks around the mound after giving up a two-run homer to Brad Miller #5 of the Seattle Mariners in the top of the eighth inning at O.co Coliseum on July 3, 2015 in Oakland, California. The home run to Miller was the second two-run homer Scribner gave up in the inning. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA – JULY 03: Evan Scribner #58 of the Oakland Athletics walks around the mound after giving up a two-run homer to Brad Miller #5 of the Seattle Mariners in the top of the eighth inning at O.co Coliseum on July 3, 2015 in Oakland, California. The home run to Miller was the second two-run homer Scribner gave up in the inning. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – Jesse Chavez and Evan Scribner gave up four runs a piece and the Oakland Athletics were defeated by the Seattle Mariners 9 – 5. Chavez gave up a pair of 2-run homers to Logan Morrison and Seth Smith while Scribner tossed up two two-run shots to Nelson Cruz and Brad Miller. Scribner has now allowed 9 home runs this season, the most among AL relievers.

With the loss tonight the A’s have clinched their first losing record before the All-Star break since 2009.

It didn’t start bad for Oakland. The A’s were able to string together back-to-back-to-back singles from Brett Lawrie, Josh Reddick and Mark Canha. Canha’s single was able to bring in Lawrie who had moved to third on Josh Reddick’s single and give the A’s a 1-0 lead. Next up was Marcus Semien who hit a high grounder to short which ultimately got him out at first but was high enough to get Reddick to cross home and make it 2-0. Mr. Reliable and ROY candidate Billy Burns was ip next and hit his 10th double of the year and get Canha home to give the A’s a 3-0 lead going into the fourth.

Jesse Chavez gave up a lead off single to Mike Zunino to start the fourth. The next batter, Logan Morrison who was 3 for 12 against Chavez lifetime, blasted the first pitch he saw to deep right center to give Seattle their first two runs of the game and make it a 3-2 game with Oakland sill in the lead.

The teams battled back and forth for a few innings until the top of the sixth when former Athletic Seth Smith hit his seventh home run of the year with another Mariner on board to give Seattle a 4-3 lead.

Then the Eighth inning came and the A’s imploded.

With Chavez still in the game he gave up a double to Robinson Cano to start the inning. After the double, Melvin believed Chavez had enough and brought in Evan Scribner to get the last six outs of the game. Unfortunately for Melvin and the A’s he tossed up a meaty cutter on his third pitch of the inning to Nelson Cruz who crushed it out of the park and gave the Mariners a 6-3 lead.

Scribner then gave up a double to Kyle Seager who then moved to third on a ground out by Seth Smith. The next batter Dustin Ackley hit a sharp grounder to first base that careened off his glove and allowed Seager to score and make it a 7-3 game.

Two pitches later Scribner tossed a 72-mph curveball to Brad Miller who also launched it out of the park and gave the Mariners a commanding 8-3 lead.

The A’s were able to muster up a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth after some great pinch hitting by Eric Sogard, a single from Reddick and double by Canha but Mariners were able to get Semien and Burns to ground out to end the game with a final score of 9-5.

The A’s are now 2-6 against the Mariners are in sole possession of last place in the AL West.

The Mariners and Athletics head back at it tomorrow afternoon when the A’s send Kendall Graveman (5-4, 3.47) against Felix Hernandez (10-4, 3.05), game time 1:05pm.

A’s Acquire RHP Cody Martin from Atlanta for International Bonus Slot 53

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OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland A’s acquired right-handed pitcher Cody Martin from the Atlanta Braves for international bonus slot 53 and assigned him to Triple-A Nashville, the club announced today.  To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the A’s designated infielder Nate Freiman for assignment.
Martin was on the Braves’ Opening Day roster and went 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 21 relief appearances over two stints with Atlanta in his Major League debut.  He allowed a .296 opponents batting average, including .182 against left-handed hitters.  The 25-year-old right-handed pitcher also went 1-3 with one save, a 2.10 ERA and .198 opponents batting average in seven games, including six starts, with Triple-A Gwinnett.  Martin was selected by the Braves in the seventh round of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft and is 27-25 with a 3.00 ERA in 107 games, including 73 starts, in five professional seasons.
Freiman was batting .171 with two doubles and eight RBI in 35 games with Nashville.  He began the season on the Oakland disabled list with a strained lumbar muscle and was reinstated from the DL and optioned to Nashville May 9.

Scott Kazmir is dominant, the A’s shut out the Mariners

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s beat the  Seattle Mariners in the first game of a four-game set by a score of 4-0. The game featured a matchup of two left-handed pitchers. Scott Kazmir  was on the hill for the A’s and he was opposed by the Mariners’ Roenis Elias. The A’s have had trouble against lefties so far this year as they have won just four games against fourteen losses. Kazmir made sure that the A’s did not lose as he was dominant. He retired thirteen men in a row before Franklin Gutierrez doubled off him in the fifth. Kazmir gave up one more hit and the man getting to him was Gutierrez. Kazmir went eight innings allowing two hits, no runs and seven strikeouts while throwing 105 pitches. Elias pitched well but not well enough.

The A’s scored two runs in the bottom of the first. With two out, Mariners’ hurler, Roenis Elias, walked Ben Zobrist. The next hitter, Country breakfast Billy Butler doubled to put men on at second and third. A’s catcher Josh Phegley  followed with a double to drive in Zobrist and Butler. A’s lead 2-0 after one inning of play.

The A’s added a run in the bottom of the fifth. Mariners’ starter Roenis Elias had retired twelve men in a row after he gave up two runs in the first.Marcus Semien broke the spell when he drove one of Elias’ pitches over the left field wall.  Seventh home run of the year for Semien. A’s lead 3-0.

The A’s took a 4-0 lead in the seventh. With two out, A’s left fielder Mark Canha blasted a triple off the center-field wall to drive in Brett Lawrie with the run. Kazmir shut the Mariners down in the eighth and Edward Mujica  pitched a perfect ninth inning to secure the win for Oakland.

Game  Notes- The A’s have won three out of the last four and twelve of the last eighteen. They are 23-15 dating back to May 23rd. With the win, Kazmir evened his record at 5-5 and the A’s improved to 37-45while Seattle dropped to 36-43. After the game, A’s manager said this about Kazmir. This is the “best that we’ve seen him here.” Melvin said that he “thought about it” when asked why Kazmir didn’t go out to start the ninth inning.  When asked about trade rumors regarding Kazmir, he said that  he doesn’t know what will transpire but Kazmir ” likes it here” and that he is “a leader in the clubhouse.”  If the A’s get back into the race, Kazmir may not be moved.

The A’s meet the Mariners again Friday night at the O.co Coliseum at 7:05 pm ET. Right-hander Jesse Chavez will go for the Green and Gold while Seattle will send  out lefty J.A.Happ to handle the pitching chores.

Time of game was a swift two hours and seventeen minutes and 13,062 were on hand to watch Kazmir’s brilliant performance.