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Brown homers to lift Athletics to victory

Jul 11, 2008 - 3:33 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Emil Brown had a last-minute conversation with hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo that paid off in a big way for the Oakland Athletics.

After being briefed on how Seattle Mariners lefthander Cesar Jimenez might approach him during his 11th-inning at-bat, Brown deposited a 1-2 pitch over the left field wall that lifted Oakland to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Seattle on Thursday.

The win was the Athletics' third in the four-game series.

"I swung the bat to hit the home run, but Van Burkleo got me more prepared for that at-bat than I had been in any other situation," Brown said. "Everything he said that guy (Jimenez) might possibly do, he did.

"He gave me a game plan and I kept it in the back of my head of what he said. Pitch-by-pitch I kept focused on what he might do in that situation and just reacted to it."

Brown's home run was the third of the game for the Athletics, who entered the day with 65 on the season, third fewest in the American League.

Oakland rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth to tie the game against current Mariners closer Brandon Morrow, who entered with a 17 2/3-scoreless inning streak and was 8-for-8 in save chances.

Jack Cust opened the ninth with a home run. After Morrow struck out Brown and Carlos Gonzalez, Kurt Suzuki clubbed a pinch-hit home run that tied the game, and forced extra innings.

It was Suzuki's first career pinch-hit home run and the first by the Athletics since Adam Melhuse hit a two-run shot against the Boston Red Sox on August 26, 2006. Prior to Suzuki's heroics, Oakland had the major's longest active streak without a pinch-hit home run.

Huston Street (2-2) pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory, while Jimenez (0-1), in just his fourth appearance, absorbed the loss.

"They put some good at-bats on him (Morrow). He's done such a great job, but they just got him," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said. "Then Emil finished us off with the big one."

R.A. Dickey started for the Mariners and turned in his fourth straight quality start , allowing four hits, walking four and striking out four, while equaling his season-high for innings pitched (seven).

"It took me a moment to adjust to the pitching mound," Dickey said. "If you notice, the bullpen hill is in the opposite direction of the one for the game. So there is an adjustment to be made with the knuckleball when you go from one mound to the other.

"It took me an inning to battle through that and figure out what I needed to do to get it over for strikes and once I did that I felt better."

For the second game in a row, Jose Lopez was the offensive catalyst for Seattle. He had a pair of doubles, scored a run and added an RBI.

The Mariners manufactured a run to break the scoreless tie in the eighth.

Lopez opened the frame with a double down the left field line against Athletics reliever Santiago Casilla. Lopez advanced to third on a fly to deep right field and scored on an infield single by Jose Vidro.

Seattle had a chance to extend its lead as it loaded the bases with one out, but Jerry Blevins came on to relieve Casilla and, after walking pinch-hitter Ichiro Suzuki, retired Miguel Cairo on a shallow fly ball to right field and struck out Jeremy Reed looking.

Lopez' double in the ninth drove home Willie Bloomquist, who had opened the frame with a double of his own, to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.

Oakland starter Greg Smith pitched six shutout innings, allowing four hits, a walk and striking out two before being relieved by Brad Ziegler. Smith did not allow a runner to reach second base.

It marked the second straight outing in which Smith did not receive any run support from his offense as the Athletics were held without a run during his five innings of work at Chicago on July 5.