OAKLAND -- The A’s potentially lost more than just the first half of their doubleheader against the Mariners in game one, as both Coco Crisp and Ryan Cook exited the 6-4, 10-inning defeat with injuries.
Crisp left after slamming into the center-field wall making an inning-ending catch in the fourth inning on Kyle Seager’s long drive. Crisp hit the wall back-first and stayed on the ground while manager Bob Melvin and a trainer jogged out to check on him. He walked off the field under his own power, but did not bat in the bottom of the inning.
Melvin said Crisp has a neck strain and is "day-to-day," but unavailable for the second game of the doubleheader. Craig Gentry replaced Crisp in center in game one and is in the lineup there for game two.
Cook, meanwhile, left with two outs in the top of the 10th after appearing to feel pain in his right arm following a strikeout pitch to Corey Hart. Melvin said Cook has a forearm strain and the A’s are not certain at this point of the extent of the injury. Cook felt some discomfort the pitch before, then felt it "a little bit more" throwing a slider to strike out Hart, Melvin said.
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The A’s, meanwhile, couldn’t take advantage of their best showing against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez in some time. They tagged Hernandez -- who entered with a 1.74 ERA in his last eight starts in Oakland -- for four runs (three earned) on 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings and did not strike out once.
It was the first time in Hernandez’s career, in 257 starts, that the right-hander threw more than five innings without recording a strikeout.
"We had good at-bats on him from the first inning on, squared some balls up and hit some balls hard at people on top of it," Melvin said. "Our approach was really good on him today. We just let it slip away in the later innings."
The A’s trailed 3-1 heading into the seventh, with starter Dan Straily allowing solo home runs to Hart and Mike Zunino and a Justin Smoak sacrifice fly in the sixth. They scored three times in the seventh off Hernandez, though, with Brandon Moss’ RBI triple giving them a 4-3 lead and knocking Hernandez out of the game.
But the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. Fernando Abad walked Michael Saunders with one out in the eighth, and Saunders eventually scored on a Robinson Cano single off Luke Gregerson. The run was charged to Abad -- the first the left-hander has allowed all season in 15 appearances.
The Mariners then broke the tie in the 10th. With runners on first and third and two outs, Smoak hit a chopper to first baseman Daric Barton, who leapt for it but had the ball hit off his glove. It was ruled an RBI single, and Kyle Seager followed by lining a single into right to make it 6-4.
Straily only allowed three hits in six innings but walked four and gave up the three runs. Still, he said his command was "a lot better" than in his previous four outings, when he had a combined 6.52 ERA.
Of the play where Crisp was injured, Straily said: "I saw one heck of a catch. Just the ability to hold onto that ball, running into and hitting that post out there, the pad, that’s got to be tough just to hang onto that.
"He’s a tough guy and he’s going to get through it. But that was one heck of a play."
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