Marco Gonzales worked seven strong innings and the Seattle Mariners got consecutive home runs from Julio Rodriguez, Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez in a five-run seventh to break open an 8-2 victory over the host Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Taylor Trammell also homered for the Mariners, who had lost three in a row.
Promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas earlier in the day, Nick Allen belted his first career homer, a two-run shot, to account for all the Oakland scoring.
Allen’s seventh-inning homer, which came in his 11th big-league game, ended a shutout bid by Gonzales (4-7), who allowed seven hits and one walk in his seven innings. He struck out two.
The left-hander won for the first time in five starts, dating back to a 7-6 home win over the A’s on May 23.
Oakland starter James Kaprielian (0-5) matched zeros with Gonzales for two innings before Trammell led off the third with his third homer of the season.
Winker doubled home Rodriguez to make it 2-0 in the sixth before Seattle pulled away in the seventh after Kaprielian had been lifted. The right-hander was charged with two runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
With Oakland down just 2-0, reliever Kirby Snead nearly worked out of his own mess in the seventh by getting a double play after two inning-opening walks.
However, Austin Pruitt came on and served up an RBI single to Ty France before Rodriguez bombed his ninth homer, Winker his fifth and Suarez his 13th consecutively, opening a 7-0 lead.
Justin Upton completed the scoring with an RBI single in the ninth.
Erik Swanson and Ken Giles, making his Mariners debut, wrapped up a seven-hitter for the Mariners with a hitless inning apiece.
Rodriguez and France had three hits apiece, Rodriguez and Winker two RBIs each and Rodriguez, France and Trammell two runs apiece for the Mariners, who had been shut out by the Los Angeles Angels in each of their last two games.
The loss was the Athletics’ 19th in their past 23 games. Jonah Bride and Cristian Pache had two hits apiece for Oakland.
–Field Level Media
