The Athletics faced the Seattle Mariners in the series finale of their four-game series. The Mariners avoided a four-game sweep, salvaging the final matchup with a 2-0 victory behind a career-best performance from Bryan Woo. The Bay Area native faced little resistance from the A’s offense in the two-and-a-half-hour ballgame.
Early Pitching Duel
Both Woo and A’s starter Gage Jump opened with three scoreless innings. In the bottom of the first, Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh came close to giving his team the lead, but his home
run attempt hooked foul. Woo was sharp early, not allowing a baserunner the first time through the A’s lineup. Jump matched his counterpart, preventing the hosts from taking an early lead.
Athletics center fielder Henry Bolte led off the fourth inning with a single, recording the visitors’ first hit against Woo. The A’s failed to capitalize on the game’s first opportunity with a runner in scoring position, as Lawrence Butler grounded out to strand Bolte at second.
Mariners Strike First
Jump ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth, allowing five straight singles to open the inning. RBI singles by Raleigh and JP Crawford gave Seattle a 2-0 lead. Jump showed his resilience by striking out the next three batters to minimize the damage, although it took him more than 40 pitches to finish the inning.
Jump’s day ended after that long inning, as right-hander Seth Johnson replaced him in the bottom of the fifth. Johnson struck out the side, showcasing the electric arsenal that could make him a long-term part of the Athletics’ bullpen. He finished with four strikeouts over two scoreless innings of relief. Fellow right-handers Scott Blewett and Yunior Tur followed with scoreless innings, keeping the A’s deficit at two runs.
Wooo: Seattle’s Pitching Dominant
Woo continued his dominance over the A’s, completing a career-high eight scoreless innings. The Mariners right-hander allowed just one hit and two walks while recording nine strikeouts and nine groundouts. A’s hitters returned to their impatient ways, consistently swinging at early-count pitches and producing several soft-contact outs against a pitcher the team has been unable to solve since he broke into the majors with Seattle.
Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz secured his 25th save of the season and finished off his team’s one-hit shutout by retiring the A’s in order in the ninth inning.
Moving Forward
The loss drops the Athletics back to 30 games below .500, but it does little to diminish the positive momentum from winning a four-game series against the Mariners.
Tomorrow, the Green and Gold return to Sutter Health Park to begin a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Left-hander Jacob Lopez, who has been the A’s most consistent starter lately, will take the mound to open the homestand. He will be opposed by Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease, a candidate to win the American League Cy Young Award.
