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Dobbs delivers in pinch

Seattle Mariners pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs follows through on his seventh-inning double against Oakland. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Seattle Mariners pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs follows through on his seventh-inning double against Oakland. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE – Greg Dobbs drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double off rookie Huston Street in the seventh inning, leading the Seattle Mariners to a 7-6 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.

The Mariners loaded the bases off Street (1-1) on singles by Adrian Beltre, Raul Ibanez and pinch-hitter Jeremy Reed. With two outs, Dobbs, batting for Miguel Olivo, hit a sinking liner that diving left fielder Eric Byrnes couldn’t catch. The ball rolled past him and all three runners scored to give the Mariners a 7-4 lead.

Joel Pineiro (1-1), making his second start of the season, got his first win since July 25 against Anaheim, his last start of the year because of a strained right elbow.

Eddie Guardado gave up Erubiel Durazo’s first homer of the season in the ninth before finishing for his fifth save.

Bret Boone gave the Mariners a 4-0 lead in the first with his sixth career grand slam, the first grand slam given up by 2002 American League Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito in his career. It came after the Mariners loaded the bases on a walk to Randy Winn, a single by Beltre and a walk to Richie Sexson.

Marco Scutaro tied the score at 4 for the A’s in the sixth with an RBI single.

Scutaro also had an RBI single in the second, when Oakland scored its first three runs. Mark Kotsay doubled in the A’s other two runs in the inning.

The A’s got a run off the Mariners’ bullpen in the eighth. They loaded the bases off Jeff Nelson on a single by Mark Ellis, a walk to pinch-hitter Bobby Kielty and Scutaro’s third single of the game. Ron Villone hit Kotsay in the hand with the bases loaded, forcing in Ellis for Kotsay’s third RBI of the game to make it 7-5.

But Villone got Jason Kendall to pop out to second baseman Boone and struck out Eric Chavez looking to end the eighth.

Zito, who is off to a 0-3 start with a 6.94 ERA, went six innings and threw 116 pitches in his fourth start of the season. He allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks, with six strikeouts. Zito has allowed four homers this season.

The crowd of 24,841 was the lowest at Safeco Field, which has been the Mariners’ home since July 15, 1999. The previous low was 24,848 on June 1, 2004. Seattle lost 99 games last season.

Notes

Barry Zito passed Rollie Fingers for No. 4 on the A’s career strikeout list at 789. Fingers had 784. … Seattle’s Greg Dobbs is 2 for 7 as a pinch-hitter this season.