OAKLAND, Calif. _ After making it look so easy with 17 hits and 14 runs on Saturday night, manager Scott Servais knew Sunday's game wouldn't be so simple.
Call it baseball karma, law of averages or difficulty to preserve success, he knew the series and season finale with the Oakland A's would be a stomach-churning ordeal.
With a minimal margin for error in a six-team race for a wild-card spot, a wasted opportunity could have hope-crushing ramifications.
But the Mariners made just enough plays on the field and found enough hits when needed to pull out a 3-2 in over the A's on Sunday, completing a series sweep at the Oakland Coliseum.
Ketel Marte broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the ninth inning, plating pinch runner Ben Gamel from third base with an RBI single to center to provide the go-ahead run.
Edwin Diaz made the one-run lead stand with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, including two strikeouts to notch his 15th save of the season.
It was the Mariners' fifth straight win and second sweep of the A's in Oakland. They improved to 75-68. Seattle remained 3 { games back in the wild card standings with Baltimore beating Detroit.
The Mariners couldn't afford to lose a game to the reeling A's (60-82), but that didn't mean a sweep was simple.
"It's not easy to sweep anybody in this league," Servais said. "I don't care what the other team is doing."
With the game tied at 2 in the top of the ninth, Mike Zunino, who had hit a two-run homer earlier in the game, led off with a first-pitch double to left off closer Ryan Madson.
"We had a decent report on him saying the first pitch is usually the best pitch you are going to get," Zunino said. "I didn't want to waste any time. I was able to get on top of it."
The Mariners replaced Zunino with Gamel and tried to bunt him to third with Leonys Martin. But two bunt attempts failed, leaving him with two strikes. Martin made up for it by lining a ball into left-center.
Gamel had to wait a second to make the sure the ball wouldn't be caught. That forced third-base coach Manny Acta to wisely hold him at third. With runners on the corners, Marte also followed the Madson scouting report, hammering a first-pitch fastball into center to score the decisive run.
"I was just trying to put the ball in play," Marte said. "I was trying to make good contact. I went with the plan. And I thought he would throw me a fastball first pitch. I put my best swing on it."
The Mariners might not have been playing for the lead if not for some defensive execution in the seventh inning. Reliever Evan Scribner, who had replaced starter James Paxton to start the frame, gave up a one-out triple off the wall in left field to Brett Eibner. With the lefty-swinging Yonder Alonso at the plate, Servais chose to intentionally walk him.
"I was a little nervous," Scribner said. "I hadn't done that in four months."
The move worked perfectly, Scribner got the next batter, pinch-hitter Joey Wendle, to hit a hard ground ball to Kyle Seager at third base. Seager gloved the awkward hop off the grass, threw to Marte, who was covering second with Seattle in an infield shift. Marte fired the ball to first for an inning-ending double play.
"Big play in the game," Servais said. "He absolutely made the right read and did the right thing. The ball was hit hard enough for us to have a chance for two."
Seager has struggled in the field this season, committing a major league-high 22 errors. But he made the tough play look simple.
"I was thinking two right there," Seager said. "When lefties hit a ground ball to you that way, it's definitely a different kind of ground ball than a rigthy. They have a little more backspin on them."
The Mariners got a quality start from Paxton, who worked six innings, giving up two runs on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts. There were no issues with the torn fingernail on his middle finger, but Paxton made sure not to exacerbate the issue by shelving his cutter. He was limited to three pitches _ fastball, curve and changeup.
Early in the game, his fastball command was spotty. After Zunino gave him a two-run lead in the top of the second, Paxton loaded the bases on three straight singles, walked in a run and gave up a sac fly to make it 2-2.
But he allowed just two base runners over the next four innings.
"He got through it and getting through the sixth inning was crucial," Servais said.
How did he do it?
"You just have to execute the off-speed stuff to keep them from looking for fastball," Paxton said. "I worked back and forth and it was more mixing the speeds. I thought we did a good job of that today."
It's a small sign that Paxton is making progress in his ability to improvise when things aren't ideal.
"He did a great job of spinning that breaking ball today," Zunino said. "He threw strikes with it, got ground balls with it and even put guys away with it."
Zunino was the only Mariners' hitter to do much against A's starter Raul Alcantara, who Seattle had never faced.
After Adam Lind drew a two-out walk in the top of the second, Zunino crushed 1-2 hanging slider deep into left for his 11th homer of the season.
"Another at-bat where I felt like I got to two strikes pretty quick," he said. "But he showed me the slider early and I was able to lay off of it. He showed me another that was in the zone and up and I was able to barrel it."
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