M’s power way to win
SEATTLE — Richie Sexson hit his second homer in two games and Yuniesky Betancourt’s tiebreaking, two-run shot off Kiko Calero in the seventh inning led the Seattle Mariners to an 8-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
At 2-0, the Mariners are off to their best start since Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson were stars on the 1996 team.
The Mariners, who have finished last in the A.L. West for three consecutive years, have now won as many games in two days against the defending division champions as they did in 19 tries last season.
In the third inning of Monday’s season-opening win, Betancourt hit a drive to left field that died in the chilly Northwest air with Safeco Field’s retractable roof open. Later, after the roof was closed, Sexson hit a decisive three-run homer that he said would not have gone out without the roof over it.
Tuesday, with the roof closed just before first pitch on a night in which temperatures dropped toward the 30s, Sexson and Betancourt both homered. Betancourt’s came in a four-run seventh off Calero (0-1) and Justin Duchscherer.
Sexson had a two-run drive to the opposite field off Mariners nemesis Joe Blanton in the second inning to give Seattle a 2-1 lead.
That lead became 4-1 in the fifth. Jose Guillen doubled off Blanton for his first hit as a Mariner. Guillen scored when right fielder Bobby Kielty slid forward on two knees while trying to catch Kenji Johjima’s liner. The ball clanged off his leg far into foul ground for a weird double. After Betancourt’s fielder’s-choice grounder, Ichiro Suzuki singled to score Betancourt.
Blanton, starting for injured Esteban Loaiza, allowed five hits and four runs in six innings. He struck out seven and walked none. He entered Tuesday 6-1 in eight starts against Seattle, including 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA last season.
The A’s had three hits in six innings off Jarrod Washburn, who left with a 4-2 lead — and then three hits in the seventh off Julio Mateo (1-0).
Nick Swisher led off the seventh with a single, advanced to second on a groundout and then scored on Mark Ellis’ two-out single. Mateo fell behind Jason Kendall 2-1 before Kendall, who was 0-for-7 with three strikeouts to begin the season, lined a tying double over the head of right fielder Guillen.
Washburn labored through most of his six innings, but allowed just three hits. After Ellis’ sacrifice fly scored Kielty with the game’s first run in the second, Washburn caught Bobby Crosby leaving first base early on a steal attempt to escape further damage in that inning.
The next 11 A’s went without a hit until one out in the sixth, when Milton Bradley drove a solo home run off the scoreboard beyond the Mariners’ left-field bullpen to make it 4-2.
Around the bases
Washburn walked three — after having walked a total of three in the six previous season debuts of his career. … This is the 11th time in Oakland history the A’s have been 0-2, the first time since 1998. The ‘98 A’s finished 74-88, last in the AL West. … Brandon Morrow, the fifth overall draft pick last June, made his major league debut for the Mariners and pitched a scoreless ninth.