The first place A’s took on the Mariners tonight at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Jacob Lopez took the mound for the A’s against Luis Castillo for the Mariners.
The A’s struck first against Castillo when Nick Kurtz led off the game with a walk and then stole second. He scored on a two-out double by Tyler Soderstrom.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the third when Rob Refsnyder scored on a Josh Naylor sacrifice fly. With two outs in the top of the fourth,
Jef McNeil hit his first homer of the season (and of course first in an A’s uniform) to put the A’s back on top 2-1.
But in the bottom of the fifth, Cal Raleigh hit a solo homer to tie it back up at 2 each. Luis Castillo exited the game in the top of the sixth, replaced by Eduard Bazardo. The A’s grabbed the lead back against Bazardo with back-to-back doubles by Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wlson.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Kotsay pulled Lopez and replaced him with Scott Barlow. Lopez’ final line was 5.1 innings, two earned runs on seven hits with one strikeout and two walks.
Shea Langeliers extended the A’s lead with his eighth home run of the season. A solo shot in the top of the seventh inning.
Barlow looked sharp with he first two outs in the seventh but then gave up a walk to Cal Raleigh and a base hit to Julio Rodriguez. Kotsay brought in Hogan Harris who battled with Josh Naylor for seven pitches, but the eighth was an easy groundout to end the inning. Nick Kurtz led the ninth off with a base hit to left. Shea Langeliers followed with a single bloop into center. Cortez hit a come-backer to the pitcher, moving the runners to second and third. With first base open they intentionally walked Soderstrom. That brought up Jacob Wilson. He dropped a base hit into centerfield to score Kurtz. In the middle of nine, the A’s increased their lead to 5-2.
Jack Perkins remained in the game to pitch the ninth. He struck out Young for the first out. Pinch hitter Dominic Canzone lined out to centerfield. Luke Raley struck out swinging to close out the game. That gave Perkins a six out save.
