OAKLAND, Calif. — Youth was served Sunday as the Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 and take two of three games against their A.L. West tormentors.
With a starting lineup that included four rookie position players and a rookie starting pitcher in JP Sears, the A’s won their second straight game against a wild card contender that had beaten them 10 straight times at the Coliseum after Friday night’s 10-3 blowout loss.
With the win before a sun-drenched crowd of 9,314, the A’s 45-77 with the Mariners falling to 66-56.
Mitch Haniger, the former Archbishop Mitty star, homered in the third against Sears, his fifth of the season.
Sears (5-0) departed with a 3-1 lead after five traffic-filled innings in which he gave up six hits but just one run on the Haniger home run. He had just 1-2-3 inning — the fifth — and threw 79 pitches, 51 of of them strikes before giving way to workhorse reliever Domingo Acevedo. The A’s used six relievers in all, with Austin Pruitt finishing up his first save by getting the final two outs.
Luis Castillo (1-1), acquired from Cincinnati in one the biggest deals before the trade deadline, was also done after five innings. The four earned runs were the most Castillo has given up in four starts with Seattle. Castillo walked one, struck out five and threw 86 pitches, 55 for strikes, with Matt Brash replacing him to open the sixth.
Seattle drew within a run in the top of the seventh on a pinch-hit RBI double by Cal Raleigh against A.J. Puk and a run-scoring single by Julio Rodriguez against Zach Jackson, with the A’s adding another run on Shea Langeliers’ RBI triple in the eighth against Matthew Festa. It was the first triple since May 18, a span of 81 games that is a major league record.
The Athletics took a 3-1 lead against Castillo in the second on a rally furnished entirely by rookies batting Nos. 6 through 9 in the lineup.
Second baseman Jonah Bride walked, and Langeliers followed with a double to left center that came off the bat at 110.7 miles per hour. Center fielder Cal Stevenson brought in Bride with a sacrifice fly to deep center, followed by a run-scoring single from shortstop Nick Allen over the first base bag.
The A’s scored once in the first on back-to-back doubles by Seth Brown and Sean Murphy and added another in the third when Stephen Vogt poked a single to center to bring home Tony Kemp. Kemp opened the inning with a bunt single and stole second to get into scoring position.
