OAKLAND, Calif. — The Athletics restored order Wednesday afternoon and James Kaprielian continued to make a case that he should stick around for a while.
Kaprielian threw seven shutout innings and gave up two hits in the longest outing of his major league career as the Athletics took advantage of walks and some timely hits to beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-3, before a crowd of 3,571 at the Coliseum.
The win improved the Athletics’ record to 29-22 as they avoided being swept in a series since they opened the season against the Houston Astros. It also halted a three-game losing streak that was the longest since their 0-6 start to begin the season.
Seattle, which was hoping for its first series sweep of the season, fell to 23-27.
Kaprielian, who threw five innings in his debut in Boston and 5 2/3 innings against the Angels in Anaheim, threw 94 pitches, 61 for strikes, in his Coliseum debut.
With a 2-0 record and a 1.53 earned run average, Kaprielian's success can allow them to take their time getting Jesús Luzardo back into the rotation while enabling the right-hander to put a stranglehold on a spot in the rotation.
The Mariners roughed up usually reliable reliever Yusmierio Petit for four hits and three runs in two-thirds of an inning in the eighth before Jake Diekman got the final out. In the ninth, Seattle had the tying run at the plate before Diekman got the final out on a looper to shortstop Elvis Andrus.
Matt Olson homered for the Athletics, his 13th of the season, in the third inning against starter and loser Robert Dugger (0-1).
The A’s chased Dugger in the fourth and added three runs for a 6-0 lead. After Dugger retired Tony Kemp, Andrus singled and Aramis Garcia was hit by a pitch.
Wyatt Mills replaced Dugger, and after walking Mark Canha, Matt Chapman hit a sacrifice fly and Ramon Laureano and Seth Brown added consecutive run-scoring singles.
The A’s run in the third inning came when Olson lofted a high fly ball to right field that just kept carrying until it dropped over the fence just out of the reach of rookie Jarred Kelenic. It was Olson’s fifth home run in his last 11 games.
Dugger, in his second start served as the opener, walked two of the first three batters he faced in Canha and Laureano, with Canha coming home when Brown slashed an opposite-field, ground-rule double to right. Chapman then drove in Laureano with a sacrifice fly to left for the A’s.
