Athletics 6, Mariners 3
Brandon Moss hit a three-run homer and Eric Sogard went 3-for-3 as host Oakland knocked off Seattle.
Sonny Gray (1-0) gave up three runs – one earned – and six hits in six innings as the Athletics took two of three games from the Mariners. Yoenis Cespedes homered in the eighth inning to make it a three-run margin and Jim Johnson allowed two runners to reach in the ninth before working out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts for his first save since becoming Oakland’s closer.
Oakland trailed 3-0 in the third inning when Moss belted his blast to right field off Erasmo Ramirez (1-1). Sogard led off the inning with a single and Jed Lowrie kept it alive with a two-out single before Moss delivered on the fourth pitch from Ramirez.
The Athletics went ahead in the fifth on Josh Donaldson’s run-scoring infield hit and added another later in the inning when Coco Crisp scored from third on Lowrie’s sacrifice fly as part of a unique force play. Seattle’s Abraham Almonte was ruled to have dropped a fly ball in center field while preparing to transfer the ball to his bare hand and his throw to second retired Donaldson, who had retreated back to first.
Almonte had a run-scoring single in the second and Brad Miller followed with one of his own to give Seattle a 2-0 lead. The Mariners increased the lead to three in the third when Robinson Cano doubled and scored on a single to center by Justin Smoak.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Ramirez allowed five runs and seven hits in four-plus innings. … Donaldson’s infield single in the fifth snapped a streak of 20 consecutive hitless at-bats. … The Mariners scored just eight runs in the three games against Oakland after piling up 26 in a season-opening three-game road sweep of the Los Angeles Angels.