Ryan’s heads-up plays sparks Mariners

SEATTLE – At least one Seattle Mariners regular served notice here that he’s ready to play the final two months of a season already lost.

Brendan Ryan flat-out embarrassed the Oakland Athletics’ defense on Tuesday night by grabbing not one, but two extra bases during a play in which he notched an infield single in the first inning.

Ryan’s play was the eye-opener in a two-run inning and eventual 4-2 win at Safeco Field, and came after Oakland’s infielders appeared to doze off after he’d reached first safely.

The A’s already seemed stunned when Ryan sprinted toward an uncovered second base, with first baseman Conor Jackson still holding the ball after he’d taken an offline throw. But they seemed positively flummoxed when Ryan then took off for an uncovered third base before any of the A’s could get there to cover.

Dustin Ackley followed with a walk and then Mike Carp hammered a double over the left fielder’s head to give the Mariners a lead they never relinquished. Both teams, noted for their terrible offenses, struggled to generate much of anything after that and it wasn’t until the sixth inning before anyone scored again.

Newcomer Casper Wells, acquired from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday, hit his first home run as a Mariner deep over the left-field wall with a runner aboard to make it a 4-0 game. Wells had entered the night 3 for 8 since the trade, and his home run spelled the end for Oakland starter Rich Harden.

Felix Hernandez had a relatively easy night in helping the Mariners record back-to-back victories for the first time since they last played the A’s four weeks ago in Oakland. Those wins were followed by a 17-game losing streak that effectively knocked the Mariners out of the division race.

A crowd of 22,576, including a large King’s Court contingent for Hernandez in the left-field stands, saw Seattle’s ace strike out nine in the first six innings. For a while after Ryan’s mad dashes, the only thing keeping fans awake was Hernandez’s strikeouts and the sight of an Ichiro Suzuki impersonator interfering with an Ackley triple down the right-field line in the third inning. The impersonator was later moved to another seat location and warned about fan interference, but not ejected.

But the A’s finally made things interesting in the seventh when Eric Sogard notched a one-out single and Scott Sizemore drilled a full-count pitch over the center-field wall to cut Seattle’s lead in half.

That ended Hernandez’s night at 113 pitches. Jeff Gray came on to finish off the inning and worked the eighth as well.

There isn’t all that much left for either team to play for these days, except for all the youngsters getting their feet wet with new teams or in the majors altogether. Seattle called up relief pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen from Double-A and third baseman Kyle Seager from Triple-A on Tuesday, the latter move made because Chone Figgins was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Wells is one of those trying to make an impact. Besides the home run, he also stood out in left field when hustling to cut off a one-out single by Ryan Sweeney in the eighth with a runner aboard. Had the ball gotten to the gap, it might have scored a run.

Instead, the A’s wound up with runners at first and second, and a Gray throwing error at third base loaded them up. But then, Seattle caught the break of the night when noted Mariners killer Kurt Suzuki went down swinging on a pitch that actually hit him.

Sogard struck out as well to end the final A’s threat.

Notes

Reliever Shawn Kelley, coming back from elbow surgery last year and a setback early this season, pitched a perfect inning Tuesday afternoon in Tacoma’s 6-2 loss to Las Vegas. Kelley needed only eight pitches, seven of them strikes, to get three fly outs in the eighth inning. … Catcher Adam Moore, who suffered a season-ending right knee injury in April, has taken batting practice the past two days and says the knee feels fine. … Tuesday was Ackley’s 38th big-league game since being called up but, going into the game, his 162-game averages computed to a .311 batting average, 44 doubles, 18 triples, 22 home runs and 101 RBIs. … Rookie Michael Pineda won’t pitch again until Tuesday at Texas, which will make it nine days between starts.