Rookie Sears shines, but Oakland A’s lose 5-1 to playoff-bound Seattle Mariners

The Oakland A’s determine to have loads of competitors for the rotation subsequent spring, and rookie J.P. Sears made one other persuasive argument to be a part of that blend on Saturday in what was possible was his closing look of the season.

The A’s misplaced 5-1 in Seattle, their sixth straight loss and No. 102 of the season, however Sears confirmed why the A’s insisted he be a part of the commerce that despatched Frankie Montas and Lou Trevino to the Yankees, pitching six shutout inning after taking up for opener Adam Oller within the second inning.

“I believed Sears did an incredible job in the present day commanding the baseball, using the fastball on the prime of the zone,” A’s supervisor Mark Kotsay mentioned. “His off-speed pitches bought some swings and misses. …. The outing was nice to finish the 12 months on.”

Sears went 6-3 with a 3.86 ERA between the Yankees and A’s. Saturday was his tenth look with Oakland — his first out of the bullpen — and was amongst his simplest. He matched his season-high for innings pitched and the six strikeouts had been his second-most of the season. He struck out a season-high seven and allowed one unearned run over 5 innings in a Sept. 20 begin towards the Mariners in Oakland.

Transferring ahead, the A’s need to be happy with Sears’ success towards their AL West rivals. In three appearances towards Seattle since Aug. 21, Sears went 2-0 and allowed one earned run over 16 innings with 16 strikeouts.

With the Mariners nonetheless buzzing hours after clinching their first postseason look in 21 years, A’s leadoff hitter Tony Kemp singled on Mariners starter Luis Castillo’s first pitch of the sport and scored on Jordan Diaz’s RBI single.

The Mariners answered with three runs of their very own within the backside of the primary. However Sears saved the Mariners from extending the lead after getting into the sport to start out the second. He struck out six, walked two and gave up simply two hits, each of which the A’s wiped away with double performs.

Oller got here off the 15-day injured record Friday from a bout of rib costochondritis, the swelling of cartilage between the ribcage and breast bone. He gave up three runs and three hits, putting out two and strolling two earlier than yielding to Sears. Kotsay mentioned utilizing Oller because the opener allowed the workforce to handle the previous starter’s work in a approach he was aware of.

Castillo saved the A’s bats quiet after the primary inning, putting out eight in six innings of two-hit ball as Seattle saved tempo with the Toronto Blue Jays in its bid to host an AL wild-card collection.

Castillo (8-6) retired 16 in a row to assist Seattle to its fourth consecutive win. The precise-hander settled down after giving up two fast hits and a stroll within the first inning to fall behind 1-0 — about 12 hours after most Mariners left the ballpark after clinching the membership’s first playoff look in 21 years.

“He was actually in whole management of the sport and I’d say that was in all probability probably the most stress-free sport that we’ve had right here in fairly a while,” Mariners supervisor Scott Servais mentioned. “I felt with him out on the mound and the way the sport was going, the way in which the group was into it in the present day coming off final night time, it was a pleasant, completely executed ballgame with a W behind it. So we’ll see about sweeping them tomorrow.”

Coming off two mediocre outings, Castillo’s finest transfer Saturday may need come within the wee hours when he celebrated briefly along with his teammates earlier than going house early and attending to mattress earlier than the day-game begin.

Castillo’s subsequent outing shall be within the playoffs, the objective basic supervisor Jerry Dipoto had in thoughts when the Mariners traded for the All-Star earlier than the deadline this summer season. The truth that his slider is now working nicely has him prepared for the position.

“Confidence was the important thing there to have the ability to throw that pitch,” Castillo mentioned via a translator. “It didn’t matter what the pitch rely was.”

The Mariners rested most of their key starters a day after securing a wild-card berth, ending the longest playoff drought in main skilled sports activities in North America. They’ve bought 5 extra video games – Sunday towards the A’s and 4 video games towards the Detroit Tigers subsequent week – to catch the Blue Jays and keep forward of Tampa Bay. The No. 1 wild card hosts a best-of-three collection starting Friday.

UP NEXT
Athletics: RHP James Kaprielian (4-9, 4.43 ERA) finishes off the collection. Kaprielian is 1-0 with a 2.37 ERA in his final three begins.
Mariners: LHP Robbie Ray (12-11, 3.58) makes an attempt to halt a three-game dropping streak in his final look of the common season.

The Related Press contributed to this report.