A's finish season with two straight wins in Seattle
SEATTLE -- Stephen Vogt homered in his only at-bat, and the Oakland Athletics finished off a frustrating 2016 season on a two-game winning streak by beating the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Sunday afternoon.
Vogt's first inning home run help the A's (69-93) jump out to a 3-0 lead on the way to their first back-to-back wins since mid-September. Seattle (86-76) fell short in its first game since being eliminated from postseason contention the previous night.
Shortstop Marcus Semien and Chad Pinder also drove in runs for the A's, while starter Sean Manaea pitched six strong innings to earn the win.
Seattle closed to within 3-2 on a two-run double from center fielder Guillermo Heredia in the fifth. The Mariners nearly tied the game with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Oakland right fielder Matt Olson caught a ball at the top of the wall to steal a solo homer from Seattle third baseman Kyle Seager to maintain the A's one-run lead. Seattle's final batter, pinch hitter Daniel Vogelbach, struck out to end the game and give Oakland's John Axford his third save of the season.
The A's scored three times on Seattle starter Felix Hernandez, who made an abbreviated appearance while throwing just 47 pitches over three innings.
Vogt took Hernandez deep for a two-out, solo homer in the first inning. Vogt's 14th home run of the season gave the A's a 1-0 lead.
Two innings later, Semien tacked on an RBI single for a 2-0 lead, then he came around to score on a single from Pinder, who had replaced Vogt in the lineup, as the A's pulled out to a 3-0 lead.
Hernandez (11-8) came out after three innings, allowing three runs off four hits. He finished the season with a 3.82 ERA -- his highest since 2007.
Manaea wound up a strong finish to his season with another solid performance. Manaea (7-9) allowed two runs off five hits over six innings.
Seattle's Robinson Cano, one of only four regular starters in the Mariners' lineup, went 0-for-3 and failed to hit his 40th home run or attain a .300 batting average for the 10th time in his career. Cano finished an impressive season with 39 homers, a career high, and a .298 batting average. Seager failed to drive in a run, having the near-homer taken away by Oakland's Olson for the second out of the ninth inning, to leave the Mariners' third baseman with a career-high 99 RBIs.
Seven relievers combined to throw nine scoreless innings for the two teams.
Seattle fell just short of the postseason, having been eliminated when the A's beat the Mariners in a 10-inning classic on Saturday night. Had Seattle won that game, it would have gone into Sunday with a chance to force a tiebreaker against either the Tigers or Orioles -- had the Mariners won Sunday's game.
Instead, the Mariners sent out a lineup that was without usual starters Nelson Cruz, Leonys Martin, Norichika Aoki and Ketel Marte.
NOTES: Sunday marked the first time this season that the Mariners played without any postseason aspirations. Saturday night's 9-8 loss to Oakland left Seattle out of playoff contention. ... DH/RF Nelson Cruz was among several veterans who weren't in the lineup for the Mariners. CF Leonys Martin also received a rare day off, along with LF Norichika Aoki, and All-Star 2B Robinson Cano filled in at DH as the Mariners closed out their season. ... Oakland didn't have veterans Khris Davis and Danny Valencia in the lineup Sunday. ... Seattle RHP Felix Hernandez went into his Sunday start with a 23-8 career record against the A's. Hernandez was tied with longtime Tigers pitcher Frank Tanana for the most wins against the franchise since the A's moved to the Bay Area in 1968.