OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland Athletics ended up in a familiar place Friday night following a 9-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum.
Coming off a arduous road trip, the Athletics struggled to put together any offense against soft-tossing left-hander Marco Gonzalez and the Mariners got a two-run double by J.P. Crawford in the fourth and a two-run home run by Omar Narvaez in the seventh. Mallex Smith blew it open with a two-run home run off Aaron Brooks in the eighth inning before a fireworks night crowd of 21,387.
The Mariners scored again in the ninth after Brooks hit two batters with two out and gave up an RBI double to Crawford.
The loss dropped the Athletics' record to 35-35 _ the 15th time this season they've had a .500 record.
Seattle, coming in on a 16-41 tailspin, improved to 30-43. Gonzalez (7-6) scattered seven hits and gave up two runs, one earned, with two walks and three strikeouts in seven innings. He got relief help from Austin Adams in the eighth and Matt Festa in the ninth.
Chris Bassitt (3-3) took the loss for the Athletics, giving up five hits and four runs (three earned) with four walks and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
In the seventh, the Mariners added to their lead on a two-out, two-run shot by Naervaez. Domingo Santana singled with one out, and Daniel Vogelbach followed with a grounder to Matt Olson at first. Olson was thinking double play, but couldn't field it cleanly and settled for the out at first. Narvaez then hit a towering home run down the line in left off Wei-Chung Wang.
It was the first runs allowed by Wang in seven appearances since joining the Athletics from Triple-A Las Vegas on May 25.
The Mariners scored three times against Bassitt in the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead on a two-run double by Crawford and a sacrifice fly from Dee Gordon.
Vogelbach opened with a single against Bassitt, followed by a soft single to right center by Narvaez. Tim Beckham was next, and his chopper to Jurickson Profar had double play written all over it. However, sure-handed shortstop Marcus Semien dropped the throw at second, and although Narvaez was originally ruled out on the force, the play was correctly reversed on replay.
With the bases loaded, Crawford's chopper to first caught Olson in between hops and it went into right field for a double to score two runs, and Gordon's fly to right brought in the third run.
Olson's two-out single to left drove in Matt Chapman to give the Athletics a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third. Chapman tripled off the fence in left with one out. Olson, hitting with two outs, had three two-strike fouls in a nine-pitch at-bat before driving in the run.
Seattle scored its first run in the second inning on Kyle Seager's sacrifice fly to left.
The Athletics scored in the second inning when after a Profar double, Josh Phegley's grounder to second was fielded by Gordon and thrown away at first, with Phegley scoring on the error.
