A night of firsts for the Mariners

Joe Saunders was sent out tonight against the Oakland A's looking for his first road win of the season. Jason Bay lead off the game for the Mariners with a single but he was erased when Nick Franklin grounded into a double play, after Kyle Seager walked Kendrys Morales struck out to end the first inning for the Mariners. In the bottom of the first ROOT Sports showed the lineup for the Athletics and I noticed that Chris Young was leading off and I asked myself why would the A's put a guy that is batting .169 in the lead off spot, and my question was answered as Young singled to lead things off for the A's. Seth Smith grounded into a double play and then Jed Lowrie flew out to Bay and Saunders had an easy 1-2-3 9 pitch inning.

Mike Morse lead off the top of the second inning off right as he was able to slide in safely in second with a lead off double, Raul Ibanez used his 41 year old speed to leg out an infield single. Mike Zunino would ground into a double play and on the play Morse scored and the Mariners took the early 1-0 lead and unfortunately thanks to the MLB rules Zunino wouldn't get credited with his first MLB RBI. In the bottom of the second the A's threatened to score a run, on a single by Derek Norris, Michael Saunders bobbled the ball and on the play Nate Freiman began to run home and on the throw to Brendan Ryan, Ryan fired the ball home and on an incredible major league tag Zunino put on Freiman he was cut down at the plate.

The Athletics would score their first run in the bottom of the fifth. Norris drew the lead off walk and after that Josh Reddick grounded out but the Mariners were unable to get the double play. The Mariners would fail another double play as Adam Rosales grounded into a force out at second. Eric Sogard would then pop out on what should have been an inning ending pop out but thanks to some mis-communication Jason Bay collided into Nick Franklin in which Franklin dropped the baseball, that allowed Rosales to score all the way from first and the game was tied at 1-1. In the top of the seventh inning Mike Zunino stepped in to take his swings at the plate, on the third pitch of the at bat Zunino drove on to deep centerfield and over Young's glove for his first major league homerun of his career and first major league RBI and thanks to his homer the Mariners took the 2-1 lead.

The top of the eighth saw Nick Franklin and Kyle Seager leading off the inning with back-to-back singles. After Morales flew out and Morse grounded into a force out at second Ibanez came through again for the Mariners and singled home Franklin to give the M's the 3-1 lead. Danny Farquhar took over for Joe Saunders in the bottom of the eighth and the first batter in Chris Young took him deep to put the Mariners lead to 3-2. Young would go 3-3 and raise his batting average to .182.

Oliver Perez was giving the ball to close out the game in the ninth. Perez shut down the Athletics and earn his first save of his career and the win for the Mariners. Joe Saunders earned his first road win of the season and improved to 7-4 on the season. Tomorrow the Mariners will make their national televised debut on FOX as Felix Hernandez goes out looking to put the Mariners to 2-0 on the road trip.