Bryan Woo continued his mastery of the Oakland Athletics with six shutout innings, Mitch Garver homered and drove in two runs, and the visiting Seattle Mariners prevailed 3-0 in a third straight pitchers’ duel between the American League West rivals Thursday afternoon.
Woo (3-0), an Oakland native, allowed just two hits and no walks in the fourth scoreless outing among his six starts this season. He lowered his ERA to 1.07, setting a Mariners record for the best ERA in the first six starts of a season.
Woo, who struck out six, also extended his career-best streak of scoreless innings against the A’s to 21 1/3 — the longest for an Oakland opponent to begin a career.
Oakland’s only hits off Woo were a double by Abraham Toro on the right-hander’s fourth pitch of the game and a single by Tyler Soderstrom with one out in the fifth. The A’s had only one other baserunner: Seth Brown reached second on an error to begin the second inning and took third on a groundout for the second out. But Woo struck out Zack Gelof to end the inning.
Toro’s double was the only extra-base hit of the game until Garver’s homer in the ninth. The three-game series, in which the Mariners won twice, featured a total of just 13 runs and 12 extra-base hits, nine of which were doubles.
A’s starter JP Sears (4-5) was nearly as good as Woo, limiting the Mariners to two runs and three hits in his six innings. He walked two and struck out eight.
Garver’s first contribution to the Seattle offense came when he led off the third with a walk. He eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Dylan Moore.
The Mariners made it 2-0 in the fourth when Garver singled home Cal Raleigh, who had been hit by a pitch and stolen second. Garver’s sixth home run of the season capped the scoring in the ninth.
Garver finished 2-for-2 and added two runs and two walks.
Austin Voth, Mike Baumann and Ryne Stanek each worked a perfect inning of relief to complete Seattle’s sixth shutout of the season. The Mariners have won nine of their last 11.
Stanek was credited with his fourth save.
–Field Level Media
