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Barton leads Athletics past Mariners

Sep 21, 2008 - 12:24 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Daric Barton's single drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to cap a day of comebacks as the Oakland Athletics rallied to defeat the Seattle Mariners, 8-7, on Saturday.

Oakland erased deficits of 5-2 and 7-4, tying the game at 7-7 with a three-run sixth. Rob Bowen had the big hit in the inning as he stroked a two-run double to left field against Roy Corcoran that plated two runs and tied the score.

Carlos Gonzalez started Oakland's winning rally with a a leadoff single in the eighth off Justin Thomas (0-1) and, after a sacrifice bunt by Rob Bowen, moved to third on a single by Travis Buck. Barton followed with a single to right to score Gonzalez with the go-ahead run.

After coming through in the clutch, Barton made possibly the game-saving defensive play in the top of the ninth.

Luis Valbuena opened the inning with a drive into the right field corner and was headed to third. He was thrown out after Ryan Sweeney retrieved the ball and hit cut-off man Cliff Pennington, who nailed Valbuena at third. The key to the play was Barton's block of the bag, preventing Valbuena from reaching third safely and putting the tying run 90 feet away with no outs.

"I knew it was going to be a close play. I blocked the bag and luckily the call went in our favor," Barton said. "He called him out, so he must have been out. It's too tough for me to tell because I'm in the play."

The close play brought Mariners manager Jim Riggleman out of the dugout to argue with the third base umpire Bill Miller. Riggleman's prolonged argument earned him his second ejection of the season.

"I really don't want to say too much and speculate. (Umpire) Bill Miller does a great job," Riggleman said. "If a mistake is made, I haven't seen it. From a distance, I'm a couple hundred feet away. I just kind of assumed our guy was going to be in there. So when he was out, I was surprised more than anything. Bill felt he had blocked him off the base. We lost that game a lot of ways. That play there sticks out because it came late. It's a chance for us to tie it with a man on third and nobody out. We lost that game four different times, really."

Huston Street (7-5) pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory and Brad Ziegler worked the ninth to record his 11th save.

Rookie Bryan LaHair and Kenji Johjima each clubbed two-run home runs to help Seattle move out to a 7-4 lead. Johjima homered against Alan Embree in the top of the sixth before the Athletics rallied for three runs in the bottom half of the frame to tie the score.

Neither starting pitcher was around long as Seattle's Carlos Silva and Oakland's Kirk Saarloos were unable to make it through the fourth, each working just 3 1/3 innings.

Silva allowed four hits, four runs - three earned - with two walks and four strikeouts. Saarloos surrendered seven hits, five runs and walked one in his first start of the season.

"Overall, I threw strikes. I was just up maybe a little," Saarloos said. "They hit some decent pitches for infield hits and stuff like that. The damage was done a single with the bases loaded and a two-run homer. Stats-wise, it wasn't a very good outing but I was just trying to pitch in the strike zone and force contact and see how long I could go, but it didn't work out very well. We won the ballgame and that is all that really matters."

Both clubs scored a pair of runs in the second inning as LaHair hit a two-run home run to right field and the Athletics' Jeff Baisley, who had a pair of hits and the first four RBI of his career, singled home a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame.

Seattle scored a single run in the third and two in the fourth to take a 5-2 lead before Baisley produced a clutch two-out, two-run single to bring Oakland to within a run at 5-4 and chase Silva from the game.

After going 2-for-2 with four RBI, Baisley was pinch-hit for by Gonzalez with two on and one out in the sixth. Gonzalez also went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI.

"I was kind of surprised," Baisley said about being relieved from the game. "But I'll take 2-for-2 with four RBI and day. We won, so that's the main thing."

Silva, who entered the game with a six-game losing and winless since June 28, failed to earn the victory in his 11th straight start as Seattle dropped their 10th straight.