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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Crisp HR spoils Elias’ solid debut

Mariners fall in 12th for first loss of season

Seattle center fielder Abraham Almonte hits a double during the fifth inning. (Associated Press)
Ryan Divish Seattle Times

A day earlier, Lloyd McClendon predicted his Seattle Mariners were due to play some 2-1 and 1-0 games. They weren’t going to steamroll every team. That premonition came to fruition on a chilly Thursday night at a largely unfilled O.co Coliseum against the defending American League West champion Oakland A’s.

Only the Mariners were on the losing end of the close game.

Reliever Hector Noesi gave up a walk-off homer to Coco Crisp on his second pitch of the bottom of the 12th inning as the Mariners lost 3-2 to the A’s.

While the game was decided on that regrettable pitch, there were many reasons for the loss, including a scarcity of runs after the fifth inning.

The A’s simply have a better bullpen than the Angels, which is not the highest compliment received. Still, the Mariners turned semi-close games against the Angels into routs, piling up 13 hits, including five homers, drawing seven walks and pounding out 12 runs against Los Angeles relievers.

But those runs never came in the late innings against the A’s, instead the Mariners had to settle for the two runs they scored in the first five innings off Oakland starter Jesse Chavez, and they never scored again. A’s relievers held the Mariners to one hit and allowed one walk and struck out five over the final seven innings.

It overshadowed the major-league debut of young left-hander Roenis Elias, who looked like a pitcher making his debut early on. The 25-year-old Cuban needed 26 pitches to get out of the first inning, going full count on all four hitters he faced. But slowly he settled down. With each inning pitched, he got more comfortable.

Elias still hadn’t allowed a hit with two outs in the fifth inning, and appeared to head to the sixth inning with a no-hitter intact. However, his perfect 2-2 curveball to Nick Punto was called a ball by home plate umpire Sean Barber much to the amazement of Elias and catcher Mike Zunino, who were heading toward the visiting dugout. Even Punto had started heading for the A’s dugout, thinking he was out. It was called a ball and on the ensuing 3-2 pitch, Punto spanked a single into left field.

Elias left a pitch up to the next hitter-Sam Fuld, who hammered a line drive into center field. Center fielder Abraham Almonte made an awkward half-slide, half-dive attempt to catch the liner and it got by him, rolling all the way to the wall. Right fielder Logan Morrison hustled over from his position and picked up the ball, firing it to the cutoff man Robinson Cano. Standing about 30 feet from the infield dirt, Cano wheeled and fired a perfect strike to Zunino to get Fuld at home and keep him from the inside-the-park home run.That inning ended Elias’ day. He pitched five innings in his debut, giving up one run on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Almonte cf 4 1 2 1 1 0 .294
B.Miller ss 5 0 0 0 0 1 .250
Cano 2b 5 0 1 1 0 2 .375
Smoak 1b 4 0 0 0 1 1 .353
Hart dh 5 0 0 0 0 1 .214
Seager 3b 4 0 0 0 1 2 .091
Morrison rf 3 1 1 0 0 1 .167
M.Saunders rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Ackley lf 5 0 1 0 0 1 .313
Zunino c 5 0 1 0 0 0 .286
Totals 42 2 6 2 3 9
Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Crisp cf 3 2 1 1 3 1 .333
Donaldson 3b 4 0 0 0 1 2 .111
Lowrie ss 3 0 0 0 2 0 .214
Cespedes dh 5 0 1 1 0 1 .250
D.Norris c 2 0 0 0 1 0 .375
Jaso ph-c 1 0 0 0 1 0 .167
Callaspo 1b 1 0 0 0 2 0 .400
Barton pr-1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .143
Moss ph-1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .308
Reddick rf 5 0 1 0 0 2 .125
Punto 2b 5 1 2 0 0 2 .200
Fuld lf 5 0 1 1 0 1 .333
Totals 36 3 6 3 10 10
Seattle 100 010 000 000—2 6 0
Oakland 000 010 010 001—3 6 2

E—Punto (1), Callaspo (2). LOB—Seattle 7, Oakland 10. 2B—Zunino (1). 3B—Cespedes (1), Fuld (2). HR—Crisp (1). RBIs—Almonte (3), Cano (2), Crisp (2), Cespedes (3), Fuld (2). SB—Almonte (1), Crisp (2), Punto (1). RLISP—Seattle 3; Oakland 4. RMU—Almonte, B.Miller, Cano. GIDP—Lowrie. DP—Seattle 2; Oakland 1.

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Elias 5 2 1 1 3 3 1.80
Medina H,2 11/3 0 0 0 2 2 0.00
Furbush H, 2 2/3 1 1 1 1 1 9.00
Wilhlmsn BS,1-1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0.00
Farquhar 12/3 0 0 0 2 3 0.00
Beimel 11/3 1 0 0 0 1 0.00
Noesi L,0-1 0 1 1 1 0 0 27.00
Oakland IP H R ER BB SO ERA
J.Chavez 6 5 2 1 2 4 1.50
Abad 2 0 0 0 1 3 0.00
Doolittle 2 1 0 0 0 1 0.00
Gregerson 1 0 0 0 0 1 2.70
Pomernz W,1-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00

IR-S—Furbush 2-0, Wilhelmsen 1-1, Beimel 2-0. T—4:02. A—11,236 (35,067).