Mariners shut down A's

OAKLAND, Calif. — None of the Mariners were debating the quality of the opposing hitters as the biggest inning of this road trip unfolded.

Not as closer J.J. Putz stood on the mound an inning early trying to secure a .500 mark for the trip with one out in the eighth, runners at the corners and Mariners-killer Marco Scutaro at the plate.

But Putz stood his ground and struck Scutaro out on a 2-2 splitter. He then retired Jason Kendall on a fly ball and secured three more outs in the ninth to complete a 4-2 victory for a Seattle squad that suddenly has a three-game winning streak.

"It's something you don't want to have to do on a consistent basis," Putz said of his five-out save. "But I've said this before, when I talked to Mariano [Rivera] last year he said, 'Sometimes the biggest outs are in the eighth inning, and that's when you may need to come in and save a game.'

"And today was a perfect example of that."

The multiple-inning save was the second in a row for Putz, who also had a four-out effort in Texas on Monday night to snap a six-game losing streak. He had back-to-back, multi-inning save chances on only one occasion last season, on Aug. 29 and Sept. 2.

But the way the Oakland offense produced this series — the group decimated by injuries to Milton Bradley and Nick Swisher — it was clear the eighth would be the A's final hope. And that was the way Mariners manager Mike Hargrove approached it, knowing any win against the A's — decimated or not — would count for an 8-9 squad still battling its own offensive woes.

It took a two-run homer by Jose Lopez in the sixth inning off A's relief pitcher Kiko Calero, a drive that barely cleared the left-field wall, to bring Seattle back from a 2-0 deficit.

"I thought it was a double, or that he [the left fielder] caught the ball," Lopez said. "That's a small home run for me and a big one for the team."

Richie Sexson would later snap an 0-for-20 slump by doubling to left-center to score a key insurance run as the bullpen fought to maintain a victory for starter Miguel Batista.

Hargrove had a healthy, rested bullpen, which is why he didn't hesitate to pull Batista with one out in the sixth inning. Batista had thrown 95 pitches to that point, settling down to retire nine in a row after a rough first few innings.

But the bullpen played a key role in this Batista victory, with Hargrove bringing setup man Chris Reitsma in to finish off the sixth and get two outs in the seventh. George Sherrill came on and secured the final out of the seventh, retiring Eric Chavez on a foul pop-up to the catcher with two on.

Hargrove might normally have used Brandon Morrow in that spot. But after Morrow's 3-1/3 innings on Monday, Hargrove thought he would not be strong enough to work multiple innings.

"The way the game played out," Hargrove said, "we went to Sherrill and Reitsma a lot sooner than what we had wanted to or would like to in a normal scenario. But it felt like we had to do that in order to give us a chance to win the ballgame."

Morrow entered in the eighth and looked shaky, allowing a leadoff single to Mike Piazza and walking Dan Johnson before a fielder's-choice groundout brought the .091-hitting Scutaro to the plate. But Hargrove was taking no chances leaving Morrow out there, remembering how Scutaro hit .296 with a .989 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, a home run, seven doubles and two triples off the Mariners last season.

He went to the guy he trusts to finish things off. And that's what Putz did, giving the Mariners a 4-1 record against an A's club they beat just twice last season.

They had already snapped a 10-game losing streak at this ballpark on Wednesday night, and wound up allowing just two runs in the series. And regardless of how weak Oakland's lineup looked, the Mariners will take a 3-3 trip that began 0-3 in Anaheim.

"The Anaheim series, we didn't really have a lot to show after those three games, but we did a lot of good things," Putz said. "Battling back like we did those first two games showed a lot. I think now this team's kind of finding their identity.

"Here we got two well-pitched ballgames," he added. "[Jarrod] Washburn, obviously, and Miguel kept us in there, kept battling, and we did our jobs."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners