The Seattle Mariners try to beat the Oakland Athletics for the sixth straight time this evening when the American League West rivals resume a four-game series at the Coliseum.

After losing 10 of their 19 matchups with the A's last season, the Mariners have won 10 of 13 this year, including five of seven in Oakland. Since the start of the 2007 season, Seattle is 33-18 against Oakland with wins in 16 of the 25 games as the visitor.

That trend continued in the opener of this set on Thursday, as Franklin Gutierrez, Bill Hall and Kenji Johjima each hit two-run homers off Brett Tomko, pushing Seattle to a 7-4 victory. Gutierrez drove in three runs as the Mariners won their third in a row and eighth in their last 11 tries overall.

Ian Snell (4-1) surrendered seven hits and three runs -- two earned -- over five innings to get the win.

"They're a pretty patient bunch of hitters over there," said Snell. "I was just trying to throw the fastball down the middle of the plate so they could hit it. It was just moving too much I guess. I gave my best and the offense did their job."

Chris Jakubauskas threw two scoreless innings. Mark Lowe allowed a run in the eighth, but David Aardsma pitched a hitless ninth for his 34th save of the year.

Tomko (3-3) was touched for eight hits and six runs over 5 2/3 frames, as the Athletics faltered for the seventh time in 11 contests. That included being swept in a three-game set at Seattle August 24-26.

Daric Barton homered and Kurt Suzuki drove in two runs for Oakland.

Getting the call for the Mariners tonight will be Ryan Rowland-Smith, who is 2-2 with a 3.95 earned run average. Rowland-Smith was charged with the loss on Sunday against Kansas City, which reached him for three runs and five hits in eight innings.

Rowland-Smith received a no-decision against the A's two starts ago and is 1-1 all-time against them with a 3.03 ERA in nine games (four starts).

Oakland, meanwhile, will counter with 24-year-old righty Clayton Mortensen, who will be making the second big league start of his career in place of an ailing Vin Mazzaro.

Mortensen, one of the players acquired from St. Louis in the Matt Holliday deal, absorbed the loss in his Oakland debut back on August 8 against the Royals. He was hit hard in that one, surrendering eight runs and eight hits in just four innings.

He has never faced the Mariners.

Ichiro Suzuki, who has a 14-game hitting streak against the A's dating back to last season, is 11 hits away from becoming the first player in major league history to have nine consecutive seasons with at least 200.