Law breaks record, Mariners break A’s

The music had to stop at some point. We celebrated good times at the Coliseum two nights in a row, but the walk-off streak ends there as the Oakland Athletics were blown to pieces by the Seattle Mariners.

However, with the end of one streak came the continuation of another as sophomore sensation Lawrence Butler not only extended his hit streak to 14 games, he set a new franchise record, going nine consecutive games with an extra-base hit. Whenever it seems Law’s peaked, he climbs a bit higher and continues to surprise the baseball world.

That record-breaking hit came on the A’s offense’s first pitch of the game, as he slashed a 97 mph fastball the other way into the left field corner.

The very next pitch, Law’s bash brother Brent Rooker grounded a bouncy single through the shortstop hole. With Randy Arozarena fielding the ball in shallow left field, it was a risky play for Butler to round third, but luckily,the throw came home a bit soft and he just beat the tag to score the A’s first run of the game.

The crowd, still high off the previous two wins, was electric and felt a special game was in store. Just two pitches and already one run and a broken record? How could things get any better?

That’s easy, they didn’t. In fact, things got much worse. Once the inning ended and JP Sears came back to the mound, the game took a small but worrying detour as the staff leader hit the leadoff batter Arozarena, walked Victor Robles, and then gave up a two-run double to Mitch Garver. The crowd was temporarily quieted as the M’s took a 2-1 lead, but it was only the 2nd inning. There was still plenty of time for more runs to be scored. Sadly, Seattle scored almost all of them.

Sears ended up allowing another three runs in the top of the 4th and ended his outing with a triple-five: five strikeouts, five hits allowed, and five earned runs. Usefully, he made it through a full six innings, but it didn’t matter much as Seattle tacked on another eleven runs over the last three innings of the game. Seven of those spoiled an Oakland A’s debut as recent waiver pickup Janson Junk unfortunately threw a bunch of junk and failed to secure an out, ballooning his ERA to a ghastly 14.63. All we can do is hope it was a fluke.

The last four runs came during the quickly expiring tenure of Ross Stripling, a veteran whose clubhouse presence better be Hall-of-Fame-worthy. With the game already out of reach, there wasn’t a lot of disappointment left to feel, but it’s still frustrating to see those mop-up innings go to someone who *knocks on wood* has no future with the team.

And there you have it. A first pitch that led to a new record, followed by eight innings of some of the roughest pitching we’ve seen this year, ending in a 16-3 blowout. The good news? The A’s are still up 2-1 in the series and still have a chance to take three of four tomorrow as Joey Estes takes on Oakland native Bryan Woo.