M’s stretch of games with A’s ends with win

SEATTLE – Even Justin Smoak seemed somewhat pleased the Seattle Mariners are going to play a team other than the Oakland Athletics in coming days.

Smoak had no reason to complain, given his home run in Sunday’s series finale and the fact that all but one of his team’s wins have come against the A’s. But it’s been a strange start to the schedule for these Mariners and their 5-3 win over Oakland now gives them a needed day off and chance to contemplate some normalcy in their baseball and off-field lives.

“It’s like every day so far,” Smoak said. “We’ve seen those guys a bunch, they’ve seen us a bunch. It will be good to play somebody else Tuesday.”

Good on multiple levels for a team that got away with a few things against the A’s that better clubs in the game won’t allow. The Mariners won five of seven against Oakland here, in California and in Japan, while dropping three of four to a much better Texas squad that left them zero margin for error.

Gauging where the Mariners are at will be easier once they face the Indians and White Sox this week, then head out on the road to Detroit, Toronto and Tampa Bay.

Still, a 6-5 record with all the travel turmoil of the past three weeks is better than the alternatives. A crowd of 19,650 at Safeco Field for Jackie Robinson Day saw the Mariners take an early 3-0 lead on home runs by Smoak and Brendan Ryan before the A’s tied it with one swing on a three-run Eric Sogard blast in the fifth.

But the Mariners regained the lead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning and starting pitcher Blake Beavan barely broke a sweat the rest of the way in a solid seven-inning effort. Beavan retired eight of his final nine hitters and had little trouble other than that brief, fifth-inning-patch where he yielded a single, hit a batter, then gave up the home run.

“You’ve just got to have a short-term memory,” Beavan said. “You give up a couple of runs and if you stop going after guys the way you were before that, you end up getting hurt and giving up more runs.

“Once I gave up the home run, I just had to stop the damage right there, keep trying to battle and make pitches.”

And once he did that, the game was pretty much over. The A’s weren’t all that competitive before Sogard’s out-of-the-blue homer and barely had time to enjoy being tied before bumbling the game away.

Jemile Weeks flubbed a potential double-play grounder in the fifth, then Ichiro Suzuki hit a go-ahead double to right off starter Graham Godfrey to give Seattle the lead for good. Godfrey later bobbled a Smoak comebacker with one out, preventing him from throwing home and forcing him to take the out at first base as a run scored.

Smoak had been 0 for 11 before going deep.

“It always feels good to hit a homer. I just feel like right now I’m just grinding out every at-bat,” said Smoak, who is hitting .186. “That just comes with being a switch-hitter. Right now, I feel like I’m grinding it out on both sides of the plate. Normally, it’s one side better than the other.”

Smoak says he’s got to “keep doing the little things” and hope it starts to show.”

Ryan confessed to reporters that he wasn’t even aware there was an off-day today. Monday.

“I’ve got to get stuff for the condo,” he quipped.

Mariners 5, Athletics 3

Oakland	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
J.Weeks 2b	4	0	1	0	0	2	.214
Crisp lf	3	0	0	0	1	0	.162
S.Smith dh	4	0	0	0	0	0	.238
Cespedes cf	4	0	1	0	0	2	.212
Reddick rf	4	0	0	0	0	0	.206
Pennington ss	4	0	0	0	0	1	.229
Ka’aihue 1b	4	1	3	0	0	0	.500
Recker c	2	1	0	0	0	0	.000
a-Barton ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.235
Sogard 3b	4	1	2	3	0	0	.214
Totals	34	3	7	3	1	5

Seattle	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Figgins lf	3	1	0	0	1	0	.250
Ackley 2b	4	1	1	0	0	0	.262
I.Suzuki rf	4	0	2	1	0	0	.289
Smoak 1b	4	1	1	2	0	1	.186
J.Montero dh	4	0	0	0	0	2	.286
Seager 3b	3	1	1	0	0	0	.286
M.Saunders cf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.200
Olivo c	3	0	0	0	0	1	.111
Ryan ss	3	1	1	2	0	0	.214
Totals	31	5	6	5	1	5

Oakland	000	030	000—3	7	1
Seattle	021	020	00x—5	6	0

a-grounded into a fielder’s choice for Recker in the 9th. E—J.Weeks (2). LOB—Oakland 6, Seattle 3. 2B—I.Suzuki (2), Seager (3). HR—Sogard (1), off Beavan; Ryan (1), off Godfrey; Smoak (2), off Godfrey. RBIs—Sogard 3 (3), I.Suzuki (4), Smoak 2 (5), Ryan 2 (2). RLSP—Oakland 2, Seattle 2. RISP—Oakland 1 for 4; Seattle 2 for 8. RMU—S.Smith, Smoak.

Oakland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Godfrey L, 0-2	5	6	5	3	1	3	4.09
Norberto	2	0	0	0	0	1	5.79
Fuentes	1	0	0	0	0	1	2.45

Seattle	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Beavan W, 1-1	7	6	3	3	0	4	2.70
Wilhelmsen H, 2	1	0	0	0	1	1	1.17
League S, 4-4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.00

HBP—by Beavan (Recker). T—2:36. A—19,650 (47,860).