Athletics hand Mariners 13th straight defeat away from Safeco
OAKLAND, Calif. — Eric Byrnes had a three-run double and four RBIs, and the Oakland Athletics bailed out struggling starter Barry Zito by rallying from five runs down to beat the Seattle Mariners 14-5 Monday night.
Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 18 games and Justin Leone homered for the Mariners, but it wasn’t enough to keep Seattle from losing its 13th straight road game.
Erubiel Durazo homered for the second straight day to give him 14 on the year, hitting a solo shot in the seventh. Damian Miller had three hits and an RBI, Eric Chavez had three RBIs and Mark Kotsay drove in two runs for the A’s, who took advantage of 14 walks by Seattle pitchers.
It was the second most walks ever by Seattle, whose club record for walks is 15 set on July 17, 1991, at Milwaukee.
Scott Hatteberg doubled in a run in the eighth on a ball that fell between left fielder Raul Ibanez, center fielder Randy Winn and shortstop Willie Bloomquist in shallow left-center.
Zito’s troubles this season are baffling, considering he’s just two seasons removed from winning the AL Cy Young award. The A’s lost two games in Seattle last week, including 6-5 in 10 innings Wednesday when Zito got a no-decision after allowing five runs and nine hits in five innings.
Zito (6-7) has just two wins since June 8, when he beat the Cincinnati Reds. Yet he has a good record against Seattle, and improved to 6-0 in six career starts against the Mariners in Oakland. The lefty went six innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits, struck out three and walked three.
Seattle pitching coach Bryan Price was ejected in the fourth by plate umpire Charlie Reliford for arguing balls and strikes. Price charged onto the field to protest and manager Bob Melvin rushed to get between Price and Reliford.
Mariners starter Travis Blackley walked four in the inning, including both Kotsay and Bobby Crosby with the bases loaded to score runs. Chavez added a two-run single in the inning to pull the A’s within 5-4.
Oakland tied the game at 5 on Byrnes’ RBI single in the fifth, which followed two more walks by Blackley and one from reliever George Sherill.
Kotsay then hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly to center. The A’s added five more runs in the sixth on Byrnes’ double to the wall in left-center, a run-scoring single by Miller and Chavez’s sacrifice fly. One of the runs was unearned after Leone’s fielding error at third.
It was an ugly start to a season-long 14-game road trip for Seattle, which is even with Oakland at 5-5 this season.
Blackley (1-3) hasn’t won in four starts since his debut July 1.