A’s defeat Mariners, keep hope of catching Yankees

SEATTLE — If the Oakland A's offense keeps this up, it might not matter who takes the mound as their starter in the wild-card game.

Continuing their unreal power surge on the road, the A's mashed four more home runs in Wednesday's 9-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners, pushing their majors-leading road home run total to 132 on the season as they scored 24 runs over the three-game series. With the New York Yankees losing to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the day, the A's are now 1 { games back of the top AL wild-card spot with three to go.

The 96 victories are their highest win total since 2013, when they captured the AL West crown with a record of 96-66.

Marcus Semien, Chad Pinder, Matt Olson and Khris Davis each homered, with Olson's 29th home run of the year a grand slam off Chasen Bradford in the fifth breaking it open to put the A's ahead by six.

Davis' solo homer in the seventh off Casey Lawrence continued to increase his careerhigh homer total with his 47th of the season, which also leads the majors. Davis has never cared much about his home run totals, but he has admitted a desire to reach 50 over the course of a season in the past.

In what was essentially a final audition to make a case for the starting role in the Oct. 3 wild-card game against the Yankees, Edwin Jackson didn't exactly distance himself from the competition.

The veteran right-hander found himself in a few jams, battling through them as he still allowed only three runs. He walked a season-high five batters, and also hit another as he was pulled with just one out and two runners on in the fifth as the A's led by five.

Jackson finishes his 2018 regular season campaign having gone 6-3 while posting a 3.33 ERA in 17 starts, with the A's winning 14 of those outings.