SEATTLE — The A’s used home runs from a couple of unexpected sources and another dominating pitching performance from Oakley’s Paul Blackburn on Wednesday to beat the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and leapfrog the Seattle Mariners out of last place in the AL West.
Seth Brown and Elvis Andrus both homered off Robbie Ray, the Mariners’ high-profile free-agent addition, in the A’s 4-2 win that dropped the Mariners into last place in the AL West.
Oakland had lost six of eight when it arrived in Seattle, but took two of three in the series. Next up is a series at Texas that begins on Friday. The Mariners have lost eight of their past 10.
Andrus homered for the second straight game, a pleasant surprise from the 33-year-old shortstop who never has been known as a home run hitter during his career. He’s homered in consecutive games before — as recently as Sept. 2020 — but had hit just four homers in his first 623 at-bats with the A’s before homering twice in a span of five at-bats starting with the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s win.
Brown’s power potential isn’t a secret — he now has 25 career home runs in barely 500 career plate appearances, but his homer off Ray was just his second against a left-handed pitcher in the majors. Brown had homered just once in his first 51 at-bats against lefties and has a career batting average of .170 against lefties after going 2 for 3 against Ray.
“I was sitting fastball with him early and he gave me a couple of pitches to hit,” Brown said. “Just trying to take advantage and not missing them.”
Blackburn continued his strong start to the season despite control issues. Blackburn (5-0) allowed one hit over 5 1/3 innings before giving way to the Oakland bullpen. Blackburn’s day was cut short due to walks, giving up a career-high five, but lowered his ERA to 1.70.
“Five walks is obviously unacceptable,” Blackburn said. “But on the flip side, I gave up one hit so my stuff was playing well today. Even though I walked five guys, I was still able to create soft contact and keep them from advancing runners and keep them from scoring.”
Blackburn’s solid outing was a relief for the A’s, who’s starters have struggled overall the past two weeks. A’s starters were a combined 0-7 with a 5.74 ERA in the previous 13 games.
“Paul is pitching with a lot of confidence right now,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’ve seen in the past where he wasn’t the same guy, confidence-wise. And yet the stuff is mostly the same. He’s made some improvements, he picked up a tick of velocity and his breaking ball’s sharper … the arsenal has increased for Paul and I think it’s another reason why he’s been so effective.”
Dany Jiménez was the last of four relievers pitching the ninth for his 10th save.
Ray tied his season-high with 10 strikeouts, but allowed a home run for the fifth straight start. Brown was the first to get to Ray with a solo shot in the fourth inning. Andrus added a two-run homer in the sixth, his first of the season. Andrus hit a towering fly ball that off the bat appeared to be a standard fly out but didn’t stop carrying until left-fielder Jesse Winker ran out of room at the wall.
The A’s wasted more than a couple of scoring opportunities, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position until Luis Barrera’s two-out RBI single in the ninth inning provided an insurance run.
Ray (4-5) pitched out of trouble with key strikeouts in the second and fifth innings with runners at third base. He’s struck out at least eight in four straight starts, but is the first Seattle pitcher this season with 10 home runs allowed.
J.P. Crawford had Seattle’s only hit off Blackburn with a single in the second inning. Luis Torrens had a two-out RBI single in the seventh inning that scored Dylan Moore, and Ty France singled and scored on Zach Jackson’s wild pitch with two outs in the eighth.
NOTES
- A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano was set to make his return after getting hit on the hand last weekend against the Angels, but was a late scratch. Laureano was in the original starting lineup in right field but Oakland made a late switch and Barrera started in his place.
- Frankie Montas (2-4, 3.55) will start the opener of a four-game series against Texas at the Coliseum that starts Friday. Montas left his last start after 1 2/3 innings after getting hit on the hand by a line drive.
Source: www.mercurynews.com