A’s drop second straight to Mariners, fall 6-5

Drops the team to three game back in the AL West

The A’s dropped their second straight game to the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon, losing a late-lead and falling 6-5 to Seattle to drop the team to 20-18 on the year.

Quick start against Woo

Right-hander Bryan Woo took to the mound to start today’s game against the Athletics. With a shuffled lineup for the finale the A’s jumped on Woo in the first inning for three runs. The rally saw cleanup hitter Miguel Andujar collect an RBI hit…

… followed by the big hit of the frame, a 2-run double from JJ Bleday to cap the rally and give the A’s a 3-0 head start:

The club would go quiet for the next couple innings but ambushed Woo again in the fourth. First Lawrence Butler went deep for his sixth home run of the year:

And that was followed by Jacob Wilson’s third hit and second double of the day, this one driving in the team’s fifth run of the afternoon:

The shortstop would end the day 4-for-5 and is now second in the league in batting average behind only Aaron Judge, someone Wilson will be seeing this weekend when the Yankees come to Sacramento.

Hoglund impresses again

Taking the hill for the Green & Gold in the series finale was right-hander Gunnar Hoglund, who was making just his second career major-league start. After cruising against the Marlins in his debut expectations were slightly raised for the 25-year old entering this afternoon’s outing.

Well, he delivered another strong start for the A’s against a much tougher opponent. Hoglund allowed singles in each of the first three frames before finally having a 1-2-3 top of the fourth, benefiting from the early lead and keeping the Seattle bats from getting any sort of rally going. It took them a while to figure Hoglund out but the Mariners finally broke through in the fifth when a single, stolen base, and double gave them their first run of the day. The rookie starter would finish the inning and come out to start the top of the sixth but a one-out walk brought out the manager for a pitching change, ending Hoglund’s second career start after 99 pitches.

• Gunnar Hoglund: 5 ¹⁄₃ IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 99 pitches

That’s back-to-back quality starts that Hoglund has delivered since being promoted to the big leagues and he strengthened his grip on a rotation spot. He currently lines up to make his next start next week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, an intimidating matchup even for the best pitchers in baseball, let alone a rookie. Hopefully he can keep rolling into that next big start.

Seattle mounts their comeback attempt

Into the A’s bullpen and finally done facing Hoglund, the Mariners bats came to life. First out of the ‘pen was Mitch Spence and Seattle was glad to see him. The right-hander not only allowed his inherited runner to score, he allowed two more runs when he allowed a 3-run home run to Rowdy Tellez, suddenly making this a close 5-4 contest between two division rivals. Spence finished the frame and TJ McFarland had a scoreless outing. Noah Murdock entered and gave away the lead, allowing two runs to score, runs that would ultimately be the difference maker today. Righties Justin Sterner and Grant Holman finished the game with scoreless appearances themselves but the damage was done.

We’d need a late comeback if they wanted the win. The bottom of the ninth started well enough with a leadoff single from Luis Urias but three straight outs sank the A’s and finished the game.

Another late-inning collapse. This one drops the A’s to 20-18 and are now three back of the Mariners in the division. They remain in second but have the Rangers hot on their heels. Hoglund was encouraging in his second career start and the bats did enough to win. Just another bullpen collapse costing the team the win.

The club will get a much-needed rest day tomorrow before welcoming the New York Yankees to town for a weekend series. The club will send Osvaldo Bido to the mound to kick off the series Friday night while New York will counter with right-hander Will Warren, who has struggled in seven starts this year.