No-hit by Oakland’s Frankie Montas two outs into the eighth inning, the visiting Seattle Mariners took advantage of reliever A.J. Puk’s wildness to score twice in the ninth without a hit to complete a three-game sweep of the A’s with a 2-1 victory Thursday afternoon.
Both Mariners runs scored on wild pitches after Puk replaced Zach Jackson (1-2) with two on and two outs in the ninth.
Seeking his first career save, Puk issued a four-pitch walk to pinch-hitter Kevin Padlo to load the bases before his first offering to Abraham Toro went to the backstop, allowing Dylan Moore to score the tying run.
Toro worked a full count, then took a pitch in the dirt that escaped Oakland catcher Sean Murphy as Jesse Winker scampered home with the eventual game-winner.
Moore and Winker had gotten aboard via walks from Jackson.
Paul Sewald worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth for his fifth save, preserving the win for fellow reliever Diego Castillo (4-1) and delivering the Mariners a third straight win in a series that began with 8-0 and 9-2 triumphs.
Christian Bethancourt’s two-out RBI single off Mariners starter Robbie Ray in the first had scored Sheldon Neuse with the only run of the first eight innings.
After having won just once in his past 11 starts and having allowed a season-high 10 hits in his previous outing, Montas retired Taylor Trammell and Toro on grounders to start the eighth before left-handed-hitting Adam Frazier went the other way with two strikes to line a single down the left-field line.
Still up 1-0 but having thrown 102 pitches, three shy of his season high, Montas was pulled in favor of Jackson to start the ninth.
Montas, who also allowed a second hit to Luis Torrens before getting out of the eighth, walked two and struck out eight in his longest outing of the season. The walks came to Trammell with two outs in the second inning and Winker with two outs in the seventh.
Ray was nearly as good, limiting the A’s to four hits and the one run in six innings. He walked two and struck out six.
Neuse led off the Oakland first with a single and took second on a two-out walk to Murphy. Bethancourt then delivered the game’s first run with a single to left field.
The A’s, who completed a 1-5 homestand, finished with five hits. Neuse had two of them, a pair of singles.
Oakland’s Ramon Laureano had the game’s only extra-base hit, a double leading off the sixth. But he got no farther as Ray retired his final three batters.
The Mariners had 25 hits in the first two games of the series.
–Field Level Media
