Ty France homers twice as Mariners complete sweep of Ak

Ty France hit two home runs and Logan Gilbert pitched eight strong innings Seattle Mariners completed a four-game sweep of the host Oakland Athletics With a 3-2 win on Thursday night

Eugenio Suarez walked with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth to bring home the tying run.

Seth Brown hit a two-run homer for the Aks, who suffered their eighth straight loss.

Gilbert (3-2) allowed two runs on three hits. The right-hander gave up no bases on balls and fanned six batters.

Paul Sewald pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two, for his 11th save of the season.

Oakland reliever Richard Lovelady (0-3) led off Jose Caballero in the eighth. With one out, France hit a popup to shallow left that Nick Allen dropped to force out the speedy Caballero at second base.

The move appeared to work as France were unable to score on Julio Rodriguez’s double to right-centre from Garrett Acton. The Aks intentionally walked Jarred Kelenich to load the bases, but Acton found the strike zone on just one of five pitches to Suarez, allowing France to walk.

France, who exited the previous game after taking a hit to the left hand in the eighth inning on Tuesday, started both of his homers at Edgar’s Cantina between the first and second decks in left field.

A’s starter JP Sears allowed one run on three hits in five innings, but was pulled after 59 pitches. The left-hander did not walk a batter and struck out one.

The move backfired as France welcomed reliever Trevor May to his second home run of the night. France got around a 96 mph ball that was thrown into the top inside corner of the offensive zone and the blast tied the score at 2-2. May was the bowler who had beaten France two nights earlier.

Ak opened the scoring in the first period. Ryan Noda lined a double to center with one out, and later Brown hit an 0-1 knuckleball into right-center field.

After Brown’s homer, Gilbert retired 15 consecutive batters before Noda had two outs in the sixth.

Seattle answered in the bottom of the first. With one out, France pulled off a blistering 83 mph fastball from Sears down the left field line.

— Field Level Media