By JANIE McCAULEY, AP baseball writer
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Luis Torrens scored a two-run tiebreak single, Chris Flexen made it clean in the seventh inning, and the Seattle Mariners won a quick two-game run against the Oakland Athletics 5-1 on Tuesday Victory.
The A’s managed three singles in a row in the first against Flexen (11-5), who settled in and dropped five over 6 2/3 innings. He allowed six hits and went one, and the Mariners improved to 17-7 on his outings.
Seattle finished an eight-game, three-city road trip 6-2.
Mitch Moreland hit an RBI single for Oakland in the first, before Jarred Kelenic equaled it to 1 with his own single in the second. Kelenic also doubled up Tom Murphy in the round of 16 and faced Dylan Moore’s single.
Political cartoons
Elvis Andrus hit a double in seventh doubles and Mark Canha left to chase Flexen, but Oakland stayed empty. Starling Marte hit a high fly against Drew Steckenrider who earned his sixth save.
The A have lost their fourth game in a row – all but Tuesday’s result with two or fewer runs – and the eighth in 10 after a 12-3 stretch.
A day after scratching too late from a bruise on his left foot, Oakland’s third baseman Matt Chapman was hit by a pitch in the left wrist on the fourth but stayed in the game.
A’s Lefty Cole Irvin (9-12) was finished after three innings, marked with two walks for three runs and seven hits.
Oakland rescuer Yusmeiro Petit, 36, made his 500th career appearance.
The Mariners’ 5-3 win on Monday was their 30th comeback win and their second consecutive rally win as their ninth win.
“I’ve never been part of a team that did this so often in games,” manager Scott Servais said, saying he wished Seattle would run a few more times earlier.
“Honestly, it would make everyone’s life a little easier, but we’re in the entertainment business, why don’t we make it interesting, right?”
One day after the start of the series it attracted 4,140 fans, on Tuesday 4,508 tickets were sold.
Mariners: With the way the off-days come up, the Mariners will stick to their regular rotation, which gives starters an extra day of rest to use at this point, Servais said.
Athletics: RHP Chris Bassitt’s face surgery in Chicago went as planned and the A’s are encouraged after the pitcher was hit by a line drive against the White Sox last week. Plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Revenaugh of Rush Medical Center performed the surgery to stabilize three broken cheekbones while removing other small broken bones. The team said, “Chris is stable and resting comfortably and will have follow-up appointments when he arrives in Oakland,” which is expected later this week. “Very successful, so this is great news,” said manager Bob Melvin. All the little nuances that we probably knew were in there, everything worked out wonderfully, removed fragments, the whole thing. So I think it went exceptionally well and everyone feels great about it. “
Seattle has ruled right-handed Robert Dugger versus Triple-A Tacoma after being selected for action on Sunday.
Seattle has Wednesday off and Yusei Kikuchi (7-7, 4.22 ERA) will kick off the series at home against Kansas City on Thursday night. He wants to crack a winless route with three starts and avoid losing starts for the second time in a row in 2021.
After Oakland’s day off, RHP James Kaprielian (7-4, 3.25 ERA) takes over the hill for the A’s, having walked 2-0 with 3.31 ERA in three starts since dropping out of the injured list.
More AP-MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
