Gio Gonzalez shines as Oakland Athletics defeat Seattle Mariners 7-1 – MLB Update
Gio Gonzalez put in a brilliant pitching performance and Hideki Matsui scored his first run in the Majors as the Oakland Athletics comprehensively beat the Seattle Mariners 7-1 on Sunday, April 3 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
Gonzalez tossed seven impressive shut-out innings as Athletics recorded their first opening day series win vanquishing division rivals the Seattle Mariners. The 25-year-old starting hurler threw 116 pitches and went for just one run on six hits and ended
the outing with an impressive 1.29 ERA.
After receiving a huge grand slam in second inning off Mariners’ slugger Ryan Langerhans, Gio struck-back with four strike-outs.
"This is how it should have been right from the get go," Gonzalez said. "We just needed to wake up a little bit."
Athletics used just two hurlers and both did not provide any chance to the opposition as closer Jerry Blevins following Gio and tossed two scoreless innings as he struck-out three batters with just a single walk.
After achieving a one-run lead in the second inning, the Mariners had some errors in fielding that provided the Athletics with some momentum to earn a decent lead. In the fourth inning, left-fielder Milton Bradley denoted a leading run to the Athletics misplacing
a fly ball which came off Kurt Suzuki’s bat. Ryan Langerhans then had the same error on Coco Crisp’s line drive in the seventh inning that fueled the four-run explosion against reliever Josh Lueke.
"We weren't making plays. Obviously the sun got us a couple of times, a couple of the balls dropped in there," Mariners’ manager Eric Wedge said. "We opened the door for them and they took advantage of it. That's going to happen at this level."
Mariners’ Doug Fister allowed three runs in just over five innings he pitched. He was only able to get two strike-outs in over 98 pitches. Seattle’s reliever Josh Lueke had a miserable day, as he went gave up four runs on two hits in less than an inning
spell.
The Athletics managed to put in a tremendous effort against the Seattle Mariners and prevent the series sweep. The Mariners struggled throughout the game, as their offence just did not fire at crucial moments. Seattle’s fielding also let them down, as they
gave up too many errors and allowed the Athletics to dominate the game early.
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