Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — Tony Kemp scored the winning run after pitcher Diego Castillo mishandled a high chopper by Sheldon Neuse with none out in the 10th inning, and the Oakland Athletics beat the surging Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Saturday.
Seattle had its four-game winning streak snapped.
Kemp started on second base and Seth Brown was intentionally walked by Castillo (7-2) before Sean Murphy walked to load the bases for Neuse. Castillo reached up and cleanly fielded the bouncer but dropped the ball trying to make the exchange and failed to make a throw home — he might not have gotten Kemp anyway.
Dany Jiménez (3-4) pitched the ninth and 10th for the win.
Eugenio Suárez hit a tying single in the eighth for Seattle against Zach Jackson a day after the Seattle slugger homered twice. Kemp had put the A’s ahead on a go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning.
A’s starter James Kaprielian allowed two runs on three hits, struck out three and walked four in five innings. He is winless in nine home starts this year.
Julio Rodríguez and Suárez hit triples for Seattle against a team that never seems to deliver three-baggers, but the Mariners couldn’t hold their early 2-0 lead.
The A’s, meanwhile, haven’t tripled in 81 games since Seth Brown on May 18 — the longest drought in AL history and by any team since 1901.
Ty France and Adam Frazier followed those big hits with sacrifice flies to give starter Logan Gilbert an early chance. The right-hander ultimately saw his winless streak reach eight starts since a win at San Diego on July 5. Gilbert had allowed 16 earned runs over his previous three outings.
Seattle won the opener 10-2 on Friday night and will try to secure another winning series in Sunday’s series finale, having gone 12-3-1 in series over its last 16 sets since June 21. That is the best stretch since the AL-best 116-win 2001 team — the Mariners’ last playoff club, too — captured 15 of its final 16 series.
Rodríguez tripled to start the game and France’s fly moments later gave the Mariners an immediate lead. Rodríguez was originally given a single in the third but it was overturned on replay review, though he added another base hit in the fifth.
Nick Allen got the A’s on the board with an RBI single in the fifth and Oakland improved to 4-8 against Seattle this season.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
