SEATTLE – Partied out and watered down, the Oakland A’s showed Wednesday they can beat the Seattle Mariners with any lineup, in any condition.
One day after the A’s clinched the American League West Division title, they threw out a lineup comprised mostly of reserves, plus a pitcher making his third career major league start, and then pulled off a familiar result.
The A’s scored twice in the ninth inning off J.J. Putz to tie the score, then won it with a run in the 10th in a 7-6 victory at Safeco Field.
“You don’t expect J.J. to come in and give up a two-run lead,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “But this does happen and it’s never fun when it does.”
The A’s have beaten the Mariners in 17 of their 19 games this season, including a 15-game winning streak that the M’s broke on Monday.
The Mariners gave a 6-4 lead in the ninth to Putz, going for his 35th save, and he gave it back to the A’s.
Bobby Kielty led off with a bunt single and Nick Swisher lined a base hit to right field. Dan Johnson then hit a hard liner up the middle that got under Ichiro Suzuki’s glove in center field for a two-run triple, tying the score.
Putz escaped the inning with the score tied, needing a play at the plate when catcher Kenji Johjima was steamrolled by Johnson for the second out.
The M’s didn’t escape the 10th.
Hiram Bocachica, the former Mariners utility player, hit a leadoff single against left-hander George Sherrill and, after Marco Scutaro’s sacrifice bunt, Kielty lined an RBI double over Suzuki’s head in center.
The A’s ninth-inning rally wiped out a victory for starter Gil Meche in what may have been his final appearance for the Mariners.
Meche, who will be a free agent, wobbled through four innings with a high pitch count before pulling himself together and getting the final six A’s he faced in the fifth and sixth. Meche finished with 125 pitches, one from his season high.
“He battled all night,” Hargrove said. “He didn’t have his good stuff. The last couple innings was as sharp as he was the whole game. This being his last start here this year, I figured I’d let him go farther than we’ve let these guys go during the season.”
Meche led 5-3 at that point, the Mariners having scored once in the third inning and four times in the fourth off A’s starter Jason Windsor, who got the start instead of Barry Zito as Oakland gave many of its regulars a break.
Suzuki led off the third with a triple, his 49th as a Mariner to break Harold Reynolds’ franchise record, and scored on Adrian Beltre’s sacrifice fly to cut Oakland’s lead to 3-1.
Raul Ibanez singled to start the bottom of the fourth and Richie Sexson drove him home with a double before Ben Broussard and Jose Lopez hit back-to-back singles that scored Sexson to tie the score 3-3. Chris Snelling dropped a sacrifice bunt, Betancourt hit an RBI ground out and Suzuki singled to drive in the Mariners’ fifth run.
For three more innings, that appeared to be enough.
Meche got the A’s in the sixth, Joel Pineiro allowed a run in the seventh and Jon Huber escaped two walks in the eighth. Lopez and Betancourt each doubled as the Mariners made it 6-4 with a run in the eighth.
They could have used one more.
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