Recap: Oakland vs. Seattle
Sports Network | September 20, 2008
Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Daric Barton singled home Carlos Gonzalez with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Oakland Athletics held on to edge the Seattle Mariners, 8-7, in the second of a three-game series at McAfee Coliseum.
Jeff Baisley had two hits and four runs batted in, while Rob Bowen had a double and two RBI for the Athletics, who have won six of their last seven games.
Kirk Saarloos surrendered five runs on seven hits in 3 1/3 frames in a starting role for Oakland. He walked a batter without recording a strike out. Huston Street (7-5) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief work. Brad Ziegler notched his 11th save of the season.
Kenji Johjima hit a two-run homer and knocked in four and Bryan LaHair added a two-run blast for Seattle, which has dropped a season-high 10 straight.
Carlos Silva got the starting nod for Seattle, but lasted only 3 1/3 innings. The right-hander was touched for four runs -- three earned -- on four hits, while striking out four and walking a pair. Justin Thomas (0-1) was tagged with the loss after giving up one run on four hits in 1 2/3 innings.
With the Mariners holding a 5-4 lead after five innings, Johjima's two-run homer to left in the top of the sixth widened the Seattle lead to three. Oakland however came back and answered with three of its own in the home half of the frame. An RBI single by Gonzalez and two-run double by Bowen tied the contest at 7-7.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth when Gonzalez led off the inning with a base hit and took second on Bowen's sac bunt. After Travis Buck laced a single to left, putting runners on the corners, Barton lined a base hit to right scoring Gonzalez to put the A's in front by an 8-7 margin. Oakland was bidding for more, but with the bases loaded and two outs, Bobby Crosby grounded into a force out.
Ziegler was brought in to try and close out the game for Oakland in the top of the ninth and gave up a lead off double to Luis Valbuena, but he was thrown out at third trying to stretch it to a triple. Mariners manager Jim Riggleman came out to argue the play and was promptly ejected from the game by Bill Miller.
Following a walk to Ichiro Suzuki, Ziegler got Yuniesky Betancourt to bounce into a 5-4-3 double-play to end the game.
After a scoreless first inning, Seattle got on the board in the top of the second. Miguel Cairo singled with two down and LaHair stepped up and hammered a 1-0 fastball over the right-field wall to give the Mariners the early 2-0 lead.
The advantage was short-lived as Oakland came back to quickly tie things in the home half of the second. With runners on second and third and one out following a sacrifice bunt by Cliff Pennington, Jack Hannahan was called out on strikes, but Baisley's single to center brought in a pair.
Valbuena led off the top of the third with a two-base hit and Suzuki singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Betancourt then chased the first pitch of the at-bat and grounded into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, but Valbuena scored to put the Mariners ahead by a 3-2 margin.
With the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fourth, Seattle tacked on two more when Johjima singled to left. However Oakland answered in bottom half on Baisley's two-run single to make it a 5-4 game in favor of the Mariners.
Brandon Morrow (2-4) will get the start for Seattle in tomorrow's series finale and be opposed by Sean Gallagher (2-2)...Oakland now holds a 9-6 advantage in this year's season series between the teams, with Seattle winning 14 of its 19 encounters with the A's a year ago. The Mariners have lost in five of their eight visits to the Coliseum so far in 2008.
