Seager, France HR, Mariners top A's, move up in playoff race

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Seattle manager Scott Servais has said the Mariners might need a nice winning streak during the September stretch run to make a real postseason push.

Kyle Seager hit his 35th home run for a career-best 100 RBIs, Ty France also connected and the Mariners moved up in the playoff race, beating the Oakland Athletics 4-1 on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.

Seattle topped the A's for the third day in row to pull within 2 1/2 games of the Yankees for the second AL wild card. Oakland fell 3 1/2 back of New York.

“Won the series. I said along the way we might need to get a little lucky and sweep somebody, so we have a chance to do that tomorrow,” Servais said. “We'll see if we can get it done.”

A’s manager Bob Melvin and bench coach Ryan Christenson were both ejected by plate umpire Greg Gibson in the top of the sixth during a strange sequence.

Melvin said he came out to inquire whether Gibson had called timeout after Seattle's Jarred Kelenic stole second on a foul tip by Dylan Moore that was not caught. But there was no sign for a foul during the play.

Runners are permitted to steal on foul tips that are cleanly caught — in this case, the ball hit Moore's bat and popped out of catcher Sean Murphy's mitt and fell to the dirt.

Kelenic, likely thinking it was indeed a foul ball, then returned to first and was tagged out by Matt Olson.

Gibson, meanwhile, had signaled timeout, so Kelenic was put back at second.

Melvin became furious when Christenson was tossed first trying to communicate to Melvin he had seen a foul tip, but Gibson clearly thought Christenson was yelling at him. That meant third base coach Mark Kotsay moved into the active manager role.

“He said he did. I didn’t think he did,” Melvin said of the timeout call. “And then in the...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Seager-France-HR-Mariners-top-A-s-move-up-in-16480901.php