Game Recap #30 Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics

Today's starting pitchers have seen more of each other this season than they'd like to. Oakland's Bartolo Colon and Seattle's Felix Hernandez, the de facto staff aces for the two teams, made their first three starts this season against each other. First, they opened the MLB season in Japan, before coming back stateside for the second game in Oakland, and then the third game in Seattle. Today, both pitchers will go at it once again in the Oakland Coliseum, wrapping up the games portion of the Ultimate Baseball "Fantasy" Trip. Hernandez ran into early troubles, giving up a single to Coco Crisp and a bunt single to Jemile Weeks in the first inning. The runners advanced a base each when Josh Reddick grounded out, and Crisp was able to score easily on a Yoenis Cespedes single in the next at-bat. Cespedes stole second to get into scoring position, but it turned out to not matter, as Brandon Moss popped out to get Hernandez out of the jam. Hernandez gave up another stolen base in the second inning to Derek Norris, but he was bailed out of this potential problem as well. Oakland again put on more pressure in the fifth inning, with Cliff Pennington and Crisp singling back-to-back, but Pennington was picked off at third base, and the next two batters were retired, as Hernandez walked a dangerous line. Seattle tied it with two outs in the sixth inning, beginning with a Dustin Ackley single, followed by another single from Ichiro Suzuki that got Ackley on third, allowing him to score when Michael Saunders singled off Colon. Hernandez got better until the eighth inning, where he walked both Weeks and Jonny Gomes, which prompted Lucas Luetge to take control for the final out of the inning. The Mariners did the same to Colon in the ninth inning, as Kyle Seager singled before getting on third when Justin Smoak doubled, but Ryan Cook spared Colon from the mess in relief. Hernandez left after 7 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and three walks but just one earned run, striking out six, while Colon had a line of 8 2/3 innings, surrendering seven hits and an earned run, while striking out five. The bullpens worked well for the most part, as Brandon League finished the ninth inning for the Mariners, while Charlie Furbush and Shawn Kelley worked the tenth, working out of a mess that saw Crisp get caught stealing while Weeks was successful in stealing a base. Cook pitched the tenth for the Athletics with no trouble. Kelley continued into the eleventh and twelfth innings, while Sean Doolittle did the eleventh while Grant Balfour handled the twelfth for the Athletics, followed by Jordan Norberto in the thirteenth, also a spotless effort. Oliver Perez wasn't as lucky, as he finished the twelfth but was caught up in a mess in the thirteenth, giving up the winning run after Weeks singled, setting him up to score on a Reddick double. The final was 2-1, with Norberto getting the win and Perez taking the loss.