The Mariners bats fell silent once again on Sunday, as the M’s fell to the Oakland A’s for the third consecutive game.
Today, the Seattle Mariners (2-4) concluded their first home series of the year with a loss to the Oakland Athletics (4-3). John Axford (1-0 0.00 ERA) was credited with the win for Oakland. Nick Vincent (1-1 3.00 ERA) was the pitcher on record for the loss. Sean Doolittle picked up his first save of the campaign.
Felix Hernandez was strong in his home debut, only having trouble in the 4th inning. The 4th inning opened with a single allowed to Josh Phegley and a walk to Marcus Semien. He struck out Coco Crisp, but the runners advanced on a Chris Coghlan ground out to Ketel Marte. Felix walked Josh Reddick to load the bases with two outs. Of course Felix does what he does best and strikes out Stephen Vogt to end the inning. The King ended the day with seven innings, throwing 99 pitches, striking out ten Oakland batters and only allowing three hits. No matter how great Felix was today, the lethargic Mariners offense could not pick him up.
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Oakland failed to capitalize on the very few mistakes that Felix made today. Their only offense came from home runs from Marcus Semien in the 8th, and the eventual game winning home run from Crisp in the top of the 10th inning. Semien’s home run came off reliever Joel Peralta, and Crisp’s homer was hit off Nick Vincent.
After having a small glimpse at a revitalized offense in the opening series in Texas, the Mariners bats paled in comparison against Oakland’s pitching. Throughout the whole series the Mariners never managed to put more than one or two runs on the board. In the final game today, the Mariners only managed six hits against Oakland. They had an opportunity to plate some runners in the bottom of the 4th inning, but left the bases loaded when catcher Steve Clevenger grounded out weakly to first. Their run came off an error from second baseman Jed Lowrie that scored Ketel Marte in the sixth inning.
Next: M’s Can’t Solve Athletics Pitching Staff
The Seattle Mariners (2-4) will start a new series against the Texas Rangers (3-4) Monday night at Safeco Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PT from corner of Edgar & Dave. Hisashi Iwakuma (0-0, 3.60 ERA) will get his second start for the Mariners this season. Kuma is looking for his first win. The Rangers will counter with Colby Lewis (0-0, 4.50 ERA). In six innings pitched against the Mariners last week, Lewis allowed six hits and three earned runs. Fans can watch locally on Root Sports Northwest and MLB.tv subscribers can watch worldwide on connected devices.