OAKLAND – It went like this: Doug Fister got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, then walked to the Seattle dugout to catch his breath.
Before he next took the mound, Fister had time to count the 10,067 fans in the Oakland Coliseum – his team was building a seven-hit, five-run rally that propelled Fister to his second win since May as Seattle beat the Athletics, 7-5.
Considering the Mariners hadn’t scored more than three runs in any of their past 11 games – yes, games – that single inning accounted for more runs than the team had scored in a game since Aug. 14.
Those seven hits in the second inning? Season high for an inning.
“We have used the same six or seven guys at the top of the lineup, but we’ve tried them in different spots,” interim manager Daren Brown said. “We kept hoping something would click.
On a cool September night, with hardly anyone in attendance, something clicked – and Oakland starter Dallas Braden couldn’t stop it.
In fact, he started it.
The left-hander who pitched a perfect game earlier this year opened the Seattle second by walking Franklin Gutierrez – then gave up seven hits to the next eight batters, with the only out coming on a sacrifice fly.
“Gutierrez isn’t your classic cleanup hitter and Russell Branyan probably isn’t a No. 3 hitter,” Brown said. “But when you’re not scoring runs, you have to try something. We tried something and got it going pretty good.”
The rout was on except, of course, nothing is that easy for these Mariners.
Seattle built leads of 6-0, then 7-2, and still had to fire up David Aardsma in the ninth inning – when Brandon League imploded.
Oakland scored three times against League with two outs, put two more runners on base and essentially forced Brown’s hand.
Aardsma got the save, his 29th of the year, with one pitch.
No one was more relieved than Fister, the pitcher who at one point in early May led the American League in earned-run average, then stopped winning when his team ceased to score runs.
“I struggled in the first inning, I basically struggled to get the ball down all night,” Fister said. “I got through five innings, that’s about all I can say.”
Fister departed with a 6-2 lead, handing off to Garrett Olson. Olson went two scoreless innings, Jamey Wright added a third.
And while all that was going on, the only bad news the Mariners got came when Gutierrez came out of the game after hyperventilating in the third inning.
“He was congested, he ran down a couple of fly balls and was a little light-headed,” Brown said. “He couldn’t catch his breath.”
Gutierrez came out, was checked by the Oakland team physician and declared fine. Whether he plays today is in question.
Fister and his bullpen got a 7-2 lead to the ninth when Brown went to League.
“Brandon hadn’t pitched in three days, and you like to get those late-inning guys in at least every three days,” Brown said. “He got two outs on six pitches. Then things got adventurous.”
With two on with two outs and a two-run lead, Brown went to his closer.
“I was close to hyperventilating, too,” he deadpanned.
Aardsma threw one pitch – a 94 mph fastball – got a pop up into shallow left field and Seattle had its 55th win of the season.
Along the way, the Mariners piled up 13 hits, including two by Ichiro Suzuki, running his hitting streak to nine consecutive games. More important, it pushed his hit total for the season to 181 with 23 games left.
Should he reach 200 hits, it would be for the 10th consecutive season and match a Pete Rose record for 200-hit seasons in a career.
Rookie Adam Moore homered, Matt Tuiasosopo and Josh Wilson had two hits apiece and Branyan drove in his 52nd RBI.
No, it may not mean much. But the Mariners’ offense had begun to weigh down a pitching staff that simply couldn’t hold opponents low enough to stay in games.
“You need to score to win, and these guys have been trying,” Brown said. “Tonight, they got to have a little fun at the plate. They had some good at-bats, they had some balls drop in – and we’ll take every one of those.”
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