OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland Athletics gave Frankie Montas their full support Saturday night and the end result was an 11-2 win over the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum before a crowd of 14,486.
Montas, who improved to 9-2, entered the game ranked fifth in the American League in run support at 7.11 runs per game. By the time Yusmeiro Petit came on in the seventh inning to replace Montas, the Athletics had scored 11 runs on 12 hits.
The Athletics, 9-2 losers Friday night to Seattle after returning from a 10-game road trip, improved to 36-35. Seattle, which traded American League home run leader Edwin Encarnacion to the New York Yankees before the game, is 30-44. The Mariners made four errors.
Seattle opened with losing pitcher Gerson Bautista (0-1) as the "opener." Bautista didn't last the first inning, giving up a two-run single to Ramon Laureano, followed by another by Jurickson Profar. He walked the first two batters he faced on nine pitches and was eventually placed by left-hander Wade LeBlanc.
The Athletics added a single run in the second on Marcus Semien's 10th home run of the season, then broke it open with five runs in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Semien, an RBI double to right by Matt Chapman, an RBI single by Khris Davis and an RBI double by Mark Canha.
That was an embarrassment of riches for Montas, who struck out nine batters in six innings. He threw 93 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. Seattle scored once in the second against Montas on a run-scoring ground out by Mac Williamson and again in the fifth on an RBI single by J.P. Crawford.
Petit, who pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, was followed by Ryan Buchter with a scoreless eighth and Joakim Soria with another in the ninth.
The series concludes Sunday with Athletics rookie Tanner Anderson (0-1, 3.18) opposing Seattle right-hander Mike Leake (5-6, 4.26).
