Carlos Cortes, Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers hit solo homers as the Athletics rallied from an early deficit by scoring six consecutive runs in a 6-4 victory against the host Seattle Mariners on Monday.
Cal Raleigh and Dominic Canzone supplied solo shots for the Mariners, who had a two-game winning streak snapped in the opener of a three-game series.
A’s reliever Hogan Harris (2-0) pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings for the victory and Joel Kuhnel worked a one-run ninth for his fourth save of the season.
With the Athletics up 6-3 in the ninth, the Mariners’ Cole Young lined a one-out single to center field and Leo Rivas followed with an RBI double into the right field corner, bringing the potential tying run to the plate. Kuhnel got J.P. Crawford to foul out to third base and Raleigh to fly out to shallow right to end the game.
The A’s, who moved a half-game ahead of Texas for sole possession of first place in American League West, scored three runs in the eighth to break a 3-3 tie.
Tyler Soderstrom led off the eighth with a double to left field off Mariners reliever Casey Legumina (0-1). Soderstrom advanced to third as Jacob Wilson grounded a single to right. Jeff McNeil walked to load the bases, and Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly to right scored Soderstrom with the go-ahead run. Lawrence Butler lined a two-run single to right to cap the scoring.
Both starters pitched well, but neither factored into the decision.
A’s right-hander J.T. Ginn allowed three runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings, with one walk and six strikeouts.
The Mariners’ Emerson Hancock went five-plus innings and gave up three runs on seven hits. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.
Seattle scored twice in the first and once in the second for a 3-0 lead.
Raleigh homered to left-center with one out in the first. Julio Rodriguez lined a single to center, stole second and scored on Josh Naylor’s double to right.
Canzone went deep to right-center leading off the bottom of the second.
Cortes, who went 4-for-5, homered to right leading off the fourth to spark the Athletics’ comeback. Kurtz and Langeliers went back-to-back to center to open the sixth, tying the score and ending Hancock’s outing.
