Luis Castillo pitched six scoreless innings and Jarred Kelenic and Jose Caballero each hit a home run as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Oakland Athletics 11-2 on Monday in the opener of a four-game series.
Julio Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with two doubles and three runs for the Mariners, who improved to 4-0 against Oakland this season.
The A’s took their fifth straight loss and fell for the 13th time in 15 games. The Mariners had lost four of their previous five games.
Castillo (3-2) allowed four hits, walked two and struck out eight. The right-hander fanned Shea Langeliers leading off the fifth inning for his 1,000th career strikeout.
A’s lefty Kyle Muller (1-4) gave up six runs on eight hits in five innings, with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Mariners scored multiple runs in each of the first two innings.
In the first, Ty France lined a single to left field with one out, and with two outs, Kelenic hit a 2-0 fastball from Muller an estimated 455 feet to center field.
In the second, Cal Raleigh grounded a leadoff single into left field, and AJ Pollock walked an out later. Caballero, who belted his first major league home run Sunday at Atlanta, hit a 2-1 slider out to left-center field, giving Seattle a 5-0 lead.
The Mariners tacked on a run in the fifth as Rodriguez led off with a bloop double down the right field line and Kelenic followed with an RBI single to center.
The Mariners scored twice in the sixth off reliever Adrian Martinez. Pollock drew a leadoff walk, and two outs later, France grounded a single to right. Rodriguez followed with a run-scoring double to left. Kelenic walked to load the bases before Eugenio Suarez had an RBI infield single to make it 8-0.
The A’s finally scored off reliever Juan Then in the eighth. Esteury Ruiz led off with an infield single and Ryan Noda walked. A wild pitch allowed both runners to advance, and they scored on RBI groundouts by Brent Rooker and Seth Brown.
The Mariners responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning off Shintaro Fujinami. Suarez lined a two-run single to center with the bases loaded and one out, and Raleigh brought home the final run on a groundout.
–Field Level Media
