Suzuki’s double beats M’s

OAKLAND, Calif. – Kurt Suzuki hit an RBI double with one out in the ninth inning to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

Suzuki’s seventh career walkoff hit provided a happy ending to a night that began with the return of Justin Duchscherer to the mound. Duchscherer missed all of last season while recovering from elbow surgery and dealing with a bout of clinical depression. He pitched into the sixth in his first appearance in nearly 20 months and ended up with a no-decision.

With Kevin Kouzmanoff running from first with one out in the ninth, Suzuki hit a drive to the wall in left field off Mark Lowe (0-1). Milton Bradley reached up to try to make the catch, but the ball appeared to hit off his glove and Kouzmanoff raced home.

Jerry Blevins (1-0) got the final out of the ninth to earn the win.

Bradley earlier hit a two-run homer for his first hit with the Mariners and Jose Lopez added three hits and a scored a run.

Tyson Ross had a memorable major league debut for Oakland, pitching 21/3 scoreless innings and striking out Ken Griffey Jr.

Rajai Davis homered and scored two runs and Suzuki hit an RBI double off Brandon League to tie the game at 5 for Oakland with two outs in the seventh. That took Duchscherer off the hook for the loss.

After giving up Bradley’s homer in the first inning, Duchscherer retired nine straight batters starting in the second and took a 3-2 lead into the fifth after an error by right fielder Ichiro Suzuki allowed a run to score in the fourth.

Franklin Gutierrez started a rally for Seattle when he singled and advanced to second on one of Duchscherer’s two wild pitches in the game. Jack Wilson tied the game with a one-out single and later scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Chone Figgins.

Athletics 6, Mariners 5

Seattle	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
I.Suzuki rf	4	0	1	0	1	0	.273
Figgins 2b	4	0	0	1	0	0	.091
Kotchman 1b	3	1	0	0	1	0	.182
Bradley lf	3	1	1	2	1	0

Griffey Jr. dh

4

0

0

0

0

2

.143

Jo.Lopez 3b

4

1

3

0

0

0

.333

F.Gutierrez cf

4

1

2

1

0

0

.455

Ro.Johnson c

3

0

0

0

0

3

.200

Langerhans ph

1

0

0

0

0

0

.000

Moore c

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

J.Wilson ss

3

1

1

1

1

1

.091

Totals

33

5

8

5

4

6

Oakland	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
R.Davis cf	5	2	2	1	0	0	.286
Ellis 2b	5	1	2	0	0	1	.417
R.Sweeney rf	4	1	2	1	0	0	.308
Kouzmanoff 3b	5	1	2	0	0	0	.308
K.Suzuki c	3	0	2	2	1	0	.364
Barton 1b	3	1	1	1	0	0	.125
Fox dh	3	0	0	0	0	0	.000
E.Chavez ph-dh	1	0	0	0	0	0	.100
T.Buck lf	4	0	2	0	0	1	.273
Patterson pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	—-
Gross lf	0	0	0	0	0	0	—-
Pennington ss	4	0	1	0	0	0	.375
Totals	37	6	14	5	1	2

Seattle	200	021	000—5	8	2
Oakland	101	110	101—6	14	0

E—I.Suzuki (1), Ro.Johnson (1). LOB—Seattle 6, Oakland 10. 2B—Kouzmanoff (1), K.Suzuki 2 (2), T.Buck (2). HR—Bradley (1), off Duchscherer; R.Davis (1), off Rowland-Smith. RBIs—Figgins (1), Bradley 2 (2), F.Gutierrez (1), J.Wilson (1), R.Davis (2), R.Sweeney (2), K.Suzuki 2 (3), Barton (1). SB—Jo.Lopez (1), F.Gutierrez (1), R.Davis (2). SF—Figgins, R.Sweeney, Barton. RLISP—Seattle 2 (J.Wilson, Ro.Johnson); Oakland 6 (Barton 2, R.Davis, Fox, Ellis 2). RMU—R.Sweeney. GIDP—Griffey Jr.. DP—Oakland 1 (Duchscherer, Pennington, Barton).

Seattle	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Rwlnd-Smith	5	8	4	3	1	1	96	5.40
White H, 1	1	0	0	0	0	0	12	0.00
League BS, 1-1	1 2/3	4	1	1	0	0	40	3.38
M.Lowe L, 0-1	2/3	2	1	1	0	1	22	5.40

Oakland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Duchscherer	5 2/3	7	5	5	2	4	101	7.94
T.Ross	2 1/3	1	0	0	1	2	48	0.00
Ziegler	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	4	0.00
Blevins W, 1-0	1/3	0	0	0	1	0	6	0.00

IR-S—M.Lowe 2-0, T.Ross 1-0. HBP—by Rowland-Smith (K.Suzuki). WP—Duchscherer 2. PB—Ro.Johnson. T—3:11. A—18,194 (35,067).