Sean Manaea fans career-best 13, Oakland tops Seattle 4-1

SEATTLE (AP) — Sean Manaea struck out a career-high 13 in seven strong innings, Ramón Laureano drove in two runs and the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 Thursday night in the opener of a 10-game road trip.

Manaea was overpowering in winning for the first time since June 14, after having lost his previous four decisions. The left-hander's dominance combined with just enough offense got Oakland’s important road trip off to a winning start.

Manaea threw a complete-game four-hitter against the Mariners in early June in Seattle.

“I’m just going out there and pitching, trying to put up zeros,” Manaea said. “It's not like coming here I'm like ‘yeah, I’m going to be unbelievable,' or something like that.”

Manaea mixed his fastball with a sweeping curveball and changeup to get 18 swings and misses from Seattle batters. Ten of the first 15 outs recorded by the A’s came on strikeouts, and eight of the nine batters in Seattle’s lineup struck out against the Manaea (7-6), who allowed just three walks.

“He’s having a hell of a year. We haven’t scored a ton of runs for him,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “I don’t think his record is indicative of how well he’s pitched this year.”

Tom Murphy was the only Seattle batter not to strike out against Manaea. He grounded out, walked and hit a long solo home run on a 1-2 pitch in the seventh inning that pulled Seattle within 2-1.

It was one of three hits allowed by Manaea, who threw 106 pitches and was lifted after the seventh inning.

“The life on his fastball tonight, I thought early in the ballgame, the first couple of innings is as hard as I've seen him throw, maybe ever, and we've seen him a lot,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.

Sergio Romo pitched the eighth and...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Sean-Manaea-fans-career-best-13-Oakland-tops-16334343.php