OAKLAND – Franklin Gutierrez’s season just took another turn for the worse. The 28-year-old Seattle Mariners center fielder is likely finished for the season.
Another bad break for a team hit by so many of them.
Dustin Ackley and Luis Rodriguez each drove in two runs for the Mariners, but the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep with an 8-5 victory Sunday.
Gutierrez departed in the eighth inning with a severe left-oblique strain. He grabbed his left side after a swing and miss and needed help off the field.
“He’s been swinging the bat much better the last month or so,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. “There’s a pretty good chance he’s done for the year. If he is done, he can take the past month with him into the offseason and to spring training.”
Gutierrez, a .256 lifetime hitter, struggled for most of the season after missing the first 41 games with a stomach ailment. He was hitting .282 over his past 33 games and had raised his average to .222.
“It’s been a tough go for him,” Wedge said. “But lately he’s been very productive.”
Mariners outfielder Casper Wells also left the game with a bruised left elbow after getting hit by a pitch in the second inning. Wedge said he will be re-evaluated today.
Blake Beavan (3-5) pitched five innings for Seattle and was charged with four runs and seven hits. The rookie right-hander is 0-3 with a 6.44 ERA in his past five starts.
“I just tried to keep the same mind-set of attacking the hitters,” Beavan said. “If I try to be too fine, that’s when I get into trouble. Everything they got, they earned.”
Hideki Matsui, who is hitting .343 (62 for 181) since the All-Star break after batting .209 before it, had three doubles Sunday to tie a single-game Oakland record.
“He didn’t miss anything,” Beavan said.
Trevor Cahill (10-13) allowed a run and five hits over five innings to improve to 1-4 with a 6.46 ERA over his past seven starts.
Ackley hit a two-run homer, and Ichiro Suzuki drove in a run for the Mariners, who have dropped four straight games. Rodriguez added a two-run single.
Kurt Suzuki’s RBI single in the second gave the A’s the early edge. David DeJesus added a sacrifice fly in the third and a run-scoring single in the fifth. Brandon Allen also drove in a run in the fifth.
Ichiro hit an RBI single in the fifth for the Mariners’ first run. Ackley hit his sixth homer with two outs in the seventh to cut Oakland’s lead to 4-3.
The Athletics responded with four runs in the bottom half. Sweeney hit a two-run triple and Willingham had a sacrifice fly.
Rodriguez’s hit made it 8-5 in the eighth before Bailey closed it out.
SHORT HOPS
Seattle right-hander Dan Cortes is expected to make a rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma today, then join the team later this week. … Mariners infielder Brendan Ryan, who was on the DL last month with a left shoulder injury, got the day off.
ON TAP
The Mariners open a three-game series against the Angels with a 6:05 p.m. game today in Anaheim, Calif., on Root Sports. Probable starting pitchers: Seattle’s Anthony Vasquez (1-1, 11.57 ERA) vs. Dan Haren (13-8, 3.16).
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