Frankly Seattle steals a win from Oakland

The Mariners came into tonight's game one game under .500 for the road trip, so you can guess that they were looking to win tonight to get to .500 on the road trip. With Joe Saunders on the mound the A's decided to get to him in the first inning. After a lead off triple by Jed Lowrie, Derek Norris singled him home and then John Donaldson hit a two run home run to put the A's up 3-0 early in the game. The Athletics added another run thanks to Nate Freiman's fourth home run of the year, after that Saunders walked both Chris Young and Josh Reddick but thanks to Saunders picking off Young and then getting Eric Sogard to ground out he was finally able to end a 40 pitch inning. 

The Mariners were finally able to get their first runs against Sonny Gray in the top of the third, after Michael Saunders drew a four pitch walk Nick Franklin hit his 11th home run of the year and so the M's were back in the game trailing by only 2 runs. Joe Saunders came back though after a 40 pitch 1st inning and gave the Mariners 5 more innings, after that Brandon Maurer came into the bottom of the seventh inning and had a nice 1-2-3 inning with one strikeout. 

In the top of the eighth Gray was brought out of the game and replaced by Sean Doolittle and tonight was not the night for the Athletics bullpen. The inning began with Michael Saunders collecting his first base hit of the night and extending his hitting streak to three games, Henry Blanco then hit a sharp line drive to left that Yoenis Cespedes couldn't hold and on the play Blanco motored into second base. The next two batters came through in a big way for the M's, Brad Miller blooped a curveball into centerfield that allowed Saunders to walk home and then Franklin hit a sharp line drive to left that scored Brendan Ryan (who pinched ran for Blanco) and so the game was all knotted up at 4-4. 

Doolittle was taken out of the game and Ryan Cook was brought in, Cook was able to get ahead of Kyle Seager in the count at 0-2 but then threw four balls in a row and Seager drew a walk. With Kendrys Morales up to bat Cook threw a wild pitch that allowed Brad Miller to hustle home, score, and give the Mariners the 5-4 lead, then Morales ground to Alberto Callaspo who threw home to try and cut down Franklin, but thanks to Franklin hustling hard he was able to score but paid a price for it. 

On the fielder's choice play that Franklin scored on he was accidentally spiked by Derek Norris but thankfully he was able to walk on his own to the M's clubhouse with a gash in his knee and a huge hole in his pants as well. Franklin tweeted (@NickFrank20) that he was ok and only needed 5 stitches and will be back in about 5 days.

The M's weren't finished after Franklin scored, Cook threw one more wild pitch that brought Seager into score and the M's went up 7-4 after the eighth inning. Yorvis Medina went to hill in the bottom of the eighth inning, he began the inning off by walking Chris Young but came back and struck out Josh Reddick and after Callaspo grounded out Medina walked Sogard, he got Lowrie to ground out though to end the inning for the A's. Danny Farquhar then came into the top of the ninth inning to shut the door on the Athletics and secure the M's the win and the best comeback of the year for the team. Farquhar was on his A-game as he struck out Stephen Vogt, got Josh Donaldson to ground out, and struck out Cespedes on a 75mph curveball. 

So, the Mariners are now 4-4 on the road trip, but this win had to be the best victory and comeback of the season, especially taking the fact that Joe Saunders gave up 4 runs in the first and threw 40 pitches in the inning as well. Mike Morse went 0 for 4 tonight extending his 0 for streak to 0 for his last 18 at bats. Tomorrow the Mariners go for the series win as they begin playing at 1:10 and after that they get a day of rest and then start a quick 6 home stand. Hisashi Iwakuma will look to get his 13th win tomorrow.