The Mariners found a way to make a game against the A’s feel like a mirror image all night long, and not in a flattering way. Same early burst.
Same ugly inning. Same late homer to grab the lead.
Same collapse. In the end, the symmetry finished with an 8-7 walk-off loss.
It started with Oakland striking first on back-to-back first-inning home runs. Zack Gelof launched a 405-foot shot off a 96-mph heater above the zone, then Lawrence Butler followed with a first-pitch cutter from Bryce Miller that caught far too much of the plate and left the yard. That put Seattle in a quick 2-0 hole.
The Mariners answered right away. Jhonny Pereda doubled to lead off the third, and Randy Arozarena followed by turning on a top-rail pitch and driving it over the fence for his 24th homer of the year. The blast tied the game at 2-2 and came with the kind of casual force that made his trident celebration look almost routine.
Seattle then took control in the fourth, and the inning turned messy fast for the A’s. Michael Arroyo drew one of his three walks, Josh Naylor singled, and Weston Wilson dropped a ball into no-man’s land to load the bases.
Pereda’s sacrifice fly to shallow left brought home Naylor, even though the throw should have had a chance if Oakland had been cleaner getting to the ball. J.P.
Crawford then followed with a soft liner that clipped the pitcher and died in the infield, allowing another run to score. Arozarena came up again and lined a ball up the middle to drive in a third run of the inning.
Seattle added one more in the fifth, giving Miller a four-run cushion as he tried to get through five innings for the first time in a month. He got there, but just barely.
Miller walked five and struck out five, and his night was full of the kind of traffic that kept the A’s hanging around. Still, he finished on a splitter that produced his fifth strikeout, leaving him with a line that at least carried some neat symmetry even if the outing itself was far from clean.
The Mariners led 6-2 heading into the seventh, and that’s where things unraveled. Carlos Vargas, after a clean sixth, opened the inning by allowing a ground-rule double and hitting a batter.
Gabe Speier came in and got the double-play chance he wanted, but Brock Rodden hesitated and was too late getting the ball to first. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Speier walked Gelof after getting ahead 0-2, then Butler grounded one slowly enough that first base was the only play and another run scored.
Dan then turned to Seranthony Domínguez, who also induced a double-play ball, only to see it tick off his glove and sneak through the infield for two more runs. Just like that, the A’s had erased the deficit and tied it 6-6.
Seattle still had a chance to answer late, and Randy Arozarena gave them the go-ahead blast in the top of the ninth. Jhonny Pereda singled and advanced on a soft groundout from Crawford, but then made the turn for third and was TOOTBLANed, wiping out the chance to have a runner aboard for Arozarena’s second homer of the day. Even without the extra man on base, the solo shot put the Mariners ahead 7-6.
That lead didn’t last. Andrés Muñoz was asked for a five-out save and got the first two outs in the eighth after cleaning up a mess, but he couldn’t get any of the three outs in the ninth. Gelof jumped on a heater on the top rail again, this time keeping it in the park with a leadoff double, and Butler followed by hammering a pitch in the middle of the plate for his second home run of the game.
So the A’s got the last word, and the Mariners were left with the kind of loss that felt painfully on-brand for how this season has gone. Arozarena and Pereda had teamed up early, Gelof and Butler had done the same for Oakland, and in the end the game finished exactly where it started: with the Mariners looking too much like the A’s.
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