The Oakland Athletics wrapped up their three game series with the Seattle Mariners by salvaging a victory in the Wednesday afternoon finale. The A’s had lost the first two games on tough bounces and poor defense, dropping to eight games back of first. However, they bounced back on Wednesday with a dominant performance from Guillermo Moscoso and two big hits from Scott Sizemore.
Moscoso continued his strong run as he went seven innings and gave up two hits and a walk. He struck out five batters and gave up no runs. He has now given up one earned run over his last four starts totaling 24 2/3 innings. Since his ERA ballooned up to 3.91 on June 12, he has seen it lowered to 2.16 and he is now 3-4 on the season.
Moscoso got some key support from Scott Sizemore who provided just about all the offense on Wednesday. Sizemore homered in the bottom of the first inning to give the A’s a 1-0 lead. He followed that up in the fifth inning with an RBI single to drive in Cliff Pennington giving the A’s a 2-0 lead they would not surrender. The A’s bullpen came on in the eighth and Joey Devine and Andrew Bailey slammed the door short over the final two innings.
It was getaway day for the A’s as they now head down to Texas for four games to close out the first half of the season. The Rangers play tonight and a loss by Texas would move Oakland to within seven games heading into this final series. The A’s are teetering on the brink of irrelevancy this season and need a strong showing in Texas to keep hope alive.