Max Muncy, Alika Williams, Jeff McNeil and Zack Gelof homered in a five-run third inning and the Athletics held on to defeat the Seattle Mariners 7-6 on Friday night, further damaging the hosts’ postseason hopes.
Brady Basso (1-2) pitched three scoreless innings of relief as the A’s (56-86) won their third consecutive game overall and second straight to open the four-game series against their American League West rivals.
Hogan Harris worked the ninth for his 15th save.
Cal Raleigh homered for the Mariners (66-76), who dropped seven games behind AL West-leading Houston and six back in the chase for the AL’s third and final wild-card berth with 20 to play.
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (11-9) was tagged for seven runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings, including all four homers. The right-hander walked two and struck out 10.
Gilbert faced the minimum number of batters through two innings – he gave up a one-out single to McNeil in the first before picking him off – and took a 2-0 lead into the third.
That’s when the A’s teed off like it was batting practice.
Muncy led off by lining a ball just over the fence in the left field corner. An out later, Williams barely reached the A’s bullpen in left. Following a walk to Henry Bolte, McNeil homered into the second row in right field, his two-run shot giving the A’s a 4-2 lead. Gelof then hit a blast that cleared the visiting bullpen. Gelof’s homer went an estimated 398 feet, with the other three all between 349 and 362.
The Mariners tied it with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Brock Rodden led off with a single and Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch. Rodden took third on Dominic Canzone’s flyout to left and scored on Julio Rodriguez’s groundout. Raleigh went deep to right-center to make it 5-5.
The A’s regained the lead in the fifth. Williams led off with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. With two outs, Gelof hit a run-scoring triple to right-center and Lawrence Butler lined a single to center to give the visitors a 7-5 advantage.
Seattle pulled within a run in the eighth as Raleigh hit a ground-rule double to left-center with one out and scored on Josh Naylor’s single to center.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the second after Raleigh drew a leadoff walk. He took second on a groundout and scored on Cole Young’s double to right. J.P. Crawford grounded an RBI single to right to make it 2-0.
Mariners rookie right fielder Lazaro Montes was injured when crashing into the wall trying to track down Gelof’s triple in the fifth and was replaced later in the inning by Taylor Ward. Montes was diagnosed with left hip soreness.
Gilbert became the seventh pitcher to reach 1,000 innings with the Mariners when he recorded the first out in the fifth.