Solo homers help Oakland edge Mariners

SEATTLE — Josh Donaldson, Daric Barton and Brandon Moss hit solo home runs and Jarrod Parker pitched into the seventh to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 4-3 win against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night. Jed Lowrie had three hits and an RBI as the Athletics held on to snap a season-long five-game losing streak. Parker (2-5) didn’t give up a hit until Kelly Shoppach’s two-out, two-run homer in the fifth inning. Parker did give up another two hits and a run before leaving in the seventh. Grant Balfour pitched the ninth for his sixth save in six chances. The Mariners did have men on second and first with two outs, but Balfour got Kyle Seager to ground out for the final out. The Mariners were hoping starter Brandon Maurer (2-5) would benefit from 10 days rest — his spot in the rotation was skipped after he gave up four runs in four innings against Baltimore on April 30 — but the rookie had another tough outing, allowing three runs on six hits in five innings. Donaldson opened the scoring in the second, hitting his fifth homer into the visitors’ bullpen in left field. The Mariners barely escaped falling behind further after Maurer walked Derek Norris and Eric Sogard — the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters — on eight straight pitches. Second baseman Dustin Ackley ranged to his left and made a diving stop of John Jaso’s grounder in the hole to end the inning. Barton added his first homer of the year in the fourth inning to make the score 2-0, and the Athletics added another in the fifth as Seth Smith doubled and scored on Lowrie’s RBI single. The Mariners’ offense couldn’t muster more than a few walks until their half of the fifth, when Shoppach hit his second homer of the season to right field with two outs and a man on. Moss hit his solo homer in the sixth to push Oakland’s lead to 4-2. The Mariners mounted several comeback efforts in the late innings. Justin Smoak and Raul Ibanez hit back-to-back one-out singles off Parker in the seventh, who was relieved by Sean Doolittle. Ackley then followed with another single to score Smoak before Doolittle got out of the jam. Reliever Ryan Cook came on in the eighth and gave up two singles and a walk, loading the bases with two outs. Endy Chavez, who had come on as a pinch runner for Ibanez in the seventh, struck out to end the rally.