Late heroics from AJ Pollock, Eugenio Suarez send M’s past A’s in 10

OAKLAND, Calif. — AJ Pollock, much like his new team, spent the first month of the season searching for some sort of life at the plate. Something, anything, to get his bat going, to spark a Mariners team desperate for some consistent offensive production.

“Yeah, it sucks,” the veteran slugger acknowledged late Tuesday. “It’s not fun. You know, you’re having fun with the guys … and if the team’s struggling, you really want to be able to say you’re contributing. It hasn’t quite happened the way I drew it up, but it’s early and you’ve just got to keep working.”

Twenty-four hours later, Pollock came through with a clutch home run in the ninth inning to tie the score, and Eugenio Suarez delivered the game-winning, three-run blast with two outs in the 10th inning to give the Mariners an unlikely 7-2 comeback victory over the Oakland A’s on Wednesday night.

The Mariners offense, lifeless for most of the night, broke loose with five runs in the 10th inning, all coming with two outs.

Suarez’s third home run of the season could not have come at a better time, a three-run shot the opposite way to right field that just cleared the 15-foot wall.

That gave the Mariners a 5-2 lead. As he rounded first base, Suarez turned back and pointed at the Mariners dugout as it erupted in celebration.

Pollock put together the most important at-bat of the season so far for the Mariners (14-16), fouling off six consecutive pitches from Oakland’s Zach Jackson.

Pollock took two straight sliders for a ball, sending the count full at 3-2. On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Jackson came back with another slider — and he left this one hanging right over the middle of the plate.

Pollock didn’t miss it, sending it over the wall in center field, a 410-foot shot that tied the score at 2-2 with one out in the top of the ninth.

That came a day after Pollock’s eighth-inning home run broke up Oakland’s no-hit bid on Tuesday and provided the spark as the Mariners rallied for a 2-1 victory in the series opener.

Pollock, a 35-year-old veteran outfielder, came into the series hitting .118 with two home runs in his first season in Seattle.

“It’s been frustrating,” Pollock said Tuesday. “I’ve had some stretches of good at-bats and then nothing (to show for it), and then I’ve had a couple not-so-great at-bats. I’ve just been looking for something to go right. This game can be torturous. You’ve just got to keep working and hopefully you get a chance to do something special for the team. I just wanted to be ready and hopefully take advantage of something.”

For the second night in a row, the Mariners were able to avoid what would have been their most frustrating loss of the season.

On a rainy Wednesday, the Mariners offense again sputtered one of Oakland’s young starter, left-hander JP Sears, who threw six shutout innings, scattered four hits and striking out six.

The Mariners have managed zero runs and just four hits across 13 innings against Oakland’s two young starting pitchers in this series.

Oakland Mason Miller tossed seven no-hit innings on Tuesday.

Making matters worse for Seattle’s offense: Jarred Kelenic, the Mariners’ most valuable hitter through the first month, was ejected in the sixth inning after striking out swinging at a slider. As he turned toward the dugout, Kelenic appeared to stay something to home-plate umpire Nestor Ceja, who quickly ejected Kelenic.

Mariners star Julio Rodriguez, after sitting out the past three games because of a sore back, was 0 for 4 with a walk in his return to the lineup as the designated hitter. He’s now hitting .231 with a .724 OPS.

The top of the Mariners’ lineup wasted prime scoring opportunities in the third and fifth innings.

With J.P. Crawford at third and Jose Caballero at second, and no outs, Oakland starter JP Sears struck out Rodriguez and Ty France, then got Jarred Kelenic to fly out to end the threat, keeping the game scoreless.

In the fifth, with Crawford at second and Caballero at first, Julio struck out again and France grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

Logan Gilbert gave the Mariners a quality start, allowing just three hits and two runs in six innings. He struck out six and walked two on 89 pitches.

Gilbert retired the A’s in order through three innings.

The A’s finally got to Gilbert in the sixth inning.

Ryan Noda drew a leadoff walk and scored the game’s first run on a Esteury Ruiz double.

Ruiz scored on a Tony Kemp double to make it 2-0.

The Mariners finally scored in the seventh inning. AJ Pollock double with one out and scored on Jose Caballero’s two-out single, cutting the Mariners’ deficit to 2-1.