OAKLAND, Calif. — With his star center fielder in the training room having been with an aching lower back and his starting pitcher, who is one of the best in baseball at throwing strikes, unable to find the strike zone and allowing the Oakland A’s to turn Seattle’s three-run lead into a two-run deficit in an interminable third inning, a frustrated Scott Servais glanced skyward with his arms crossed for a moment.
Was he counting the number of fans in the largely empty concrete mausoleum?
Was he asking the baseball gods what he did to deserve such a curse?
Perhaps he was checking to see if the cloudless blue sky in the Bay Area was indeed falling on him and his scuffling team.
Would this awful road trip turn abysmal with yet another loss, which meant getting swept by the remnants of the Oakland A’s? The panic and pressure of possibly blowing their expected spot in the postseason would only increase.
Nope, Jarred Kelenic wouldn’t let that happen.
Jarred Kelenic?
Yes, the one-time prospect and forgotten foundational piece of this team’s future success, offered a tantalizing glimpse of what he can still be as a player and what he could mean to this team in the final weeks of the season in Seattle’s much-needed 9-5 victory over the Oakland A’s.
Recalled from Tacoma on Wednesday and starting left field on Thursday, Kelenic erased the A’s 5-3 lead by himself. Kelenic crushed a solo homer off Oakland starter Adrian Martinez in the fourth inning and laced an RBI double in the game-changing sixth inning to tie the game at 5-5.
With two outs, Adam Frazier gave the Mariners a lead for good. He punched a ground ball down the third base line for a double that scored two runs.
Seattle continued to add on runs late.
In their two wins on the road trip, they’ve scored nine runs in each game, which is an improvement over the four total runs they’ve scored in their last four losses.
Given a 3-0 lead before he fired a pitch, George Kirby suffered through his worst outing of his MLB career. Known for his consistent command and pinpoint accuracy, the rookie right-hander suffered through a rare outing where the baseball wouldn’t do what he wanted it to do.
It was apparent from the first inning when a two-seam fastball left up in the zone to Tony Kemp was turned into a leadoff double. That was followed by a walk to Vimael Machin that had Kirby shaking his head in disgust.
After a brief timeout for Julio Rodriguez to exit the game due to a recurrence of lower back discomfort, Kirby retired the next three batters to keep the inning scoreless.
The second inning had a similar pattern. Kirby allowed back-to-back one-out singles but managed to get out of the inning unscathed.
But Kirby couldn’t do the same in a third inning he never finished. He allowed a double to Machin, a single to Sean Murphy and walked Seth Brown to load the bases in the first three batters he faced. It was the first time Kirby walked more than one batter in a game this season.
The bases didn’t stay loaded for long. Veteran catcher Stephen Vogt, who resides in the Olympia area and announced he would retire after the season, channeled his inner youth for a moment, lacing a triple into the right field corner to tie the game.
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Kirby picked up his first out of the inning on a ground out from Jordan Diaz, but a walk to Conner Capel and a double from Shea Langeliers gave Oakland a 4-3 lead and end Kirby’s outing.
His replacement, Matt Brash, entered the game with runners on first and third. He walked Nick Allen to load the bases and gave up a single to Kemp that made it 5-3. When Brash finally ended the inning with a strikeout of Machin and a fielders choice on Murphy, the A’s had 11 batters come to the plate.
Kirby’s final line: 2 2/3 innings, five earned runs allowed on seven hits with three walks and one strikeout.
