OAKLAND, Calif. — This was another one of those games Thursday night for the Seattle Mariners that, if viewed in isolation, might not seem so bad.
Veteran Oakland lefty Scott Kazmir is among the American League leaders in earned-run average. So mustering little offense in a 4-0 loss …OK, it happens.
Except it’s difficult to view a quiet night against Kazmir in isolation. This is the 48th time in 79 games the Mariners failed to score four runs. Note, too, the American League average was 4.22 prior to Thursday’s games.
This was also their sixth shutout loss in the past four weeks.
So it’s not always Kazmir who was, yes, in top form. He permitted just two hits, both by Franklin Gutierrez, in eight innings, which merely evened his record at 5-5 despite lowering his ERA to 2.56.
“Listen, I thought we were coming out of it,” manager Lloyd McClendon said. “And I still believe we’re coming out of it. We ran into a tough pitcher tonight. He’s a veteran guy who knows what he’s doing.”
With Kazmir at 105 pitches, the Athletics closed out their victory with Edward Mujica in the ninth inning.
The Mariners didn’t get a base runner until Gutierrez’s one-out double to right in the fifth inning. That was also the first ball to reach the outfield against Kazmir as he breezed through the first 13 hitters.
“At that point,” Gutierrez said, “you’re just thinking to try to get on base.”
Gutierrez remained at second when Mark Trumbo chased an outside 2-2 pitch, and Logan Morrison grounded out to second. Gutierrez also had a leadoff single in the eighth.
Mariners lefty Roenis Elias, with Hisashi Iwakuma poised to return from the disabled list, entered the game possibly needing a strong outing to hold his place in the rotation after two shellings over his three previous starts.
Asked if he felt that way, Elias said: “Not at all. I just go out there and focus on what I have to do. The decision is not mine. They’ve seen what I can do and what I have done.”
Elias (4-6) gave up just three hits in six innings, and one was a line-hugging grounder and another was a bloop into right on a defensive swing. He also issued just one walk.
The Athletics turned that into three runs.
“Luck was on their end,” Elias said. “Those are things you can’t control. You just focus on what you can control.”
Tom Wilhelmsen replaced Elias to start the seventh and had another rocky outing in yielding a single and a triple that accounted for Oakland’s final run.
Wilhelmsen has allowed nine runs and 11 hits over 6 2/3 innings in his last seven appearances, which turned a 1.96 ERA into an unsightly 4.68.
“His trouble seems to be with two outs and nobody on,” McClendon said. “He’s running into problems, particularly command problems. We’ve got to get him straightened out.”
The game’s decisive moment occurred in the Oakland first inning when Elias issued a two-out walk to Ben Zobrist in the first inning after jumping ahead 1-2 in the count.
“I gave up the walk,” Elias said. “That’s the only one I gave up today, and it didn’t work out.”
No, it didn’t. Billy Butler followed with a double to left on a grounder just fair past third base that moved Zobrist to third. Josh Phegley then flicked a two-run double into right field.
“It was outside,” Elias said. “He just stuck the bat out there and blooped it into right field.”
Phegley’s two-run double also ended the Mariners’ streak of 24 straight scoreless innings by their rotation over the three previous games.
Elias retired 12 in row after Phegley’s double, but the streak ended with a bang when Marcus Semien hooked a 2-0 fastball for a two-out homer to left in the fifth inning.
And, OK, that was hit hard. It was Semien’s seventh homer of the season — and third against the Mariners.
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