A’s 2, Mariners 1:
Fine pitching by Sean Manaea helps prevent sweep in Seattle.
SEATTLE — If there were any doubts before, Sean Manaea erased them Sunday: The lefthander is the A’s staff ace in the post-Sonny Gray era.
With most of the rest of the staff struggling, particularly Opening Day starter Kendall Graveman, Manaea has been magnificent, allowing no more than two runs in any of his four starts. Against the Mariners at Safeco Field, he allowed just two hits in seven innings, propelling the A’s to a 2-1 victory and preventing a three-game sweep by Seattle.
“Boy, I don’t know where we’d be without him at this point,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “Saves the bullpen, has pitched great, won games for us. He’s had a heck of an April for us for sure.”
“Fantastic,” said second baseman Jed Lowrie, whose firstinning homer off Felix Hernandez provided all of Oakland’s scoring. “I’m really impressed with how he’s executed; that’s the biggest difference I’ve seen. The stuff is the same, he’s just executing on a much higher level.”
One key play in the first went Oakland’s way — Hernandez appeared to have picked off Marcus Semien, but a balk was called. The Mariners disagreed, the umpires conferred and the call was overturned — but because Semien wasn’t tagged until after the balk had been called, he was placed back at first base. Melvin said the crew told him that Hernandez had stepped off the rubber, “but they were trying to get it right . ... If they’re saying they got the call wrong, they can’t call Marcus out.”
Lowrie followed with his fourth homer of the season. “I wasn’t as upset with the call after that,” Melvin said.
Lowrie is batting .348, and his 23 hits lead the American League. “He’s playing his best baseball of his entire career last year and this year, continuing to right now,” Melvin said.
Blake Treinen, who hadn’t worked in more than a week because the A’s hadn’t held a late lead, earned a four-out save, and Oakland, which made three errors Saturday, played well in the field. For the second game in a row, third baseman Matt Chapman made an outstanding play on a bunt by Dee Gordon, retiring the speedy runner at first. In a one-run game Sunday, “that was a huge play,” Melvin said. “I don’t know if anyone else makes that play.”
Manaea didn’t allow a hit until Kyle Seager’s two-out single in the fourth. The Mariners’ run came on Taylor Motter’s homer in the fifth.
Manaea, who has spoken often this season about pitching with conviction and confidence, has given up 16 hits and four walks with 20 strikeouts in 272⁄3 innings. He has completed at least seven innings in three of his four outings. He has given up four homers in all — all solo shots — and with runners on base, opponents are 1-for-20 against him.
“Last year, anything that would go wrong, terrible thoughts would pop in my head,” he said. “It would get me further down, and there were times I couldn’t get out of it. I’m just trying to have that positive mind-set.”
Graveman, for contrast, has a 9.87 ERA and has allowed six homers, accounting for eight runs, and opposing teams are batting .412 against him with runners on base.
Though he has spent nearly the entirety of his time with Oakland at the big-league level, should Graveman continue to struggle, the A’s will consider sending him to Triple-A Nashville to get his issues sorted out, according to sources.
Left-hander Brett Anderson, the onetime Oakland starter who was signed to a minorleague deal this spring, is pitching well at Nashville. He is on the same turn as Graveman, so he could be an option if needed, though he is not on the 40-man roster. Daniel Gossett also remains an option.
Oakland’s rotation will change Tuesday, when the team, which has gone without a fifth starter for a week and a half, calls up Trevor Cahill from Nashville. Cahill, another ex-A’s starter signed during spring training, will start the free game Tuesday against the White Sox that could draw 66,000. Cahill told The Chronicle during the spring that he plans to bring back his familiar walk-out music, Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”