The Athletics came out of Seattle with a 7-4 win in a game that had just about everything: an early jolt, a big Mariners first inning, a pile of walks, plenty of strikeouts and enough late offense to finish the job in a nearly three-and-a-half-hour series opener.
Zack Gelof set the tone right away. Batting second, he launched his 16th home run of the season to right-center field in the opening frame, giving the A’s a 1-0 lead before the Mariners had even settled in.
Seattle answered fast against A’s starter Jack Perkins. Randy Arozarena walked to open the bottom of the first, then came around on Julio Rodríguez’s RBI single.
Cal Raleigh followed with an RBI single of his own, and Lazaro Montes added another run-scoring knock with two outs to push the Mariners ahead 3-1. Seattle put all nine hitters to the plate in that inning, and Brian Serven helped limit the damage with a smart play at the plate to get the third out after a wild pitch.
The A’s had a chance to swing the game back in the second when their first three hitters reached and the bases were loaded with nobody out. But the inning stalled quickly. Alika Williams grounded into a double play that still brought home Oakland’s second run, and Anderson then struck out Max Muncy to escape with the Mariners still in front.
Oakland kept putting the ball in play against the sloppy spots in the game, but not always in the way it wanted. Gelof grounded into the A’s MLB-high 116th double play of the season in the third, though Lawrence Butler kept his bat hot by stretching his hitting streak to 12 games.
Perkins had a rough first inning but managed to settle in enough to get through three. He allowed three runs on four hits, struck out seven and walked five. The stuff was there; the control wasn’t.
The A’s finally flipped the score in the fifth. With two outs and runners on second and third, Butler ripped a two-run single up the middle to give Oakland a 4-3 lead. Scott Blewett then followed Perkins with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts, giving the A’s a strong bridge out of the middle innings.
Oakland kept adding from there. In the sixth, after Carlos Vargas came in for Seattle starter Kade Anderson, pinch-hitter Donovan Walton turned on a pitch and sent his fifth homer of the season to right-center for a 5-3 advantage.
Seattle kept hanging around, though. In the bottom of the sixth, the Mariners opened with back-to-back hits against Chris Roycroft, and Arozarena scored on Rodríguez’s RBI force-out. Williams made a strong stop to help get at least one out, and Roycroft then got out of the inning with the tying run left on second.
The pressure kept building in the seventh. Roycroft recorded the first two outs, then allowed two more runners to reach before Luis Medina came in and struck out Arozarena to strand the tying run at third.
The A’s got some breathing room in the eighth. Jeff McNeil singled to lead off the inning, Walton walked, and with two outs Muncy lined an RBI single to left to make it 6-4. Gelof later grounded out with the bases loaded, leaving more runs on the table.
Medina returned for the bottom of the eighth and walked two more hitters, pushing the A’s pitching total to eight walks on the night. Still, he worked out of the inning without giving up a run.
Oakland added one more in the ninth when Jonah Heim and McNeil hit back-to-back doubles off Hoby Milner to make it 7-4. Hogan Harris then shut the door with a clean ninth, retiring Seattle in order to lock down his 14th save of the season. Blewett picked up his first major league win this year.
The A’s will try for a third straight win tomorrow night, with rookie right-hander Kade Morris set to start against Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert.
In Other News...
A's Young Bat Is Making Triple-A Hard To Ignore
The Las Vegas Aviators kept piling up offense in a 14-12 win over El Paso, and right fielder Devin Taylor was right in the middle of it. He homered twice and also came through with key hits as the Aviators turned a high-scoring night into another reminder that their lineup has plenty of thump, with Colby Halter and Johnathan Rodriguez adding their own damage in the win.
For the A's, that's the part worth watching. Taylor's surge at Triple-A has made the promotion look less like a test run and more like a real audition, and every loud night only sharpens the conversation about how soon he might force the issue. The rest of the farm system had its own mixed slate, with Midland, Fort Wayne and Stockton also in action, but Taylor's bat is the one making it hardest to ignore what is happening in Las Vegas. [Read more 🡒]
Athletics Head To Seattle With Two Familiar Problems Still Looming
The Athletics left the Rangers series with some offensive momentum, averaging 5.0 runs a game and closing with a nine-run outburst that gave the lineup a much-needed jolt. Even so, the underlying issue was hard to miss: too many innings began with Oakland chasing the game, which put extra pressure on every at-bat and made early traffic on the bases feel like a missed chance rather than the start of something bigger.
As the club heads to Seattle, the focus turns to whether that improved scoring can show up sooner and whether Henry Bolte can be turned into the kind of table-setter this offense needs when he gets on base. The bullpen offered a different kind of encouragement, with Chris Roycroft and Geoff Hartlieb both handling multi-inning work well enough to suggest Mark Kotsay may want to keep leaning that way as he looks for more stability behind a team still trying to solve the same two problems. [Read more 🡒]
Luis Severino Holds A Big Piece Of The A's Offseason Puzzle
Luis Severino is still one of the biggest variables hanging over the Athletics offseason plans, even as the club starts sorting through what the next few months might look like. The right-hander was brought in to anchor the rotation, but his first year in Oakland never really got off the ground after injury interrupted things and kept him out for most of the 2026 season.
His contract now looms almost as large as his health. Severino has an opt-out coming after 2026, and if he decides to stay, the As would get one more season from a pitcher they still need to count on. If he walks, he would head back into free agency just as Oakland braces for a possible front-office change and more roster turnover ahead of the move to Las Vegas. [Read more 🡒]