Anderson pitches well as Oakland wins again

SEATTLE — The A’s and Mariners have moved in opposite directions since they met in Japan to open the season. Seattle got off to a hot start and faded, while Oakland was slow out of the gate, only to come on strong in the past month.

Friday’s game at Seattle on Friday had more of that March/ April vibe initially. Yusei Kikuchi, who smothered the A’s at the Tokyo Dome, gave up only one hit through the first five innings at the former Safeco Field. It took two Mariners errors in the seventh and a twoout pinchhit double by Robbie Grossman in the ninth to nudge along Oakland’s 52 win, the A’s sixth in their past seven games to push them a seasonhigh nine games over .500.

Since June 9, the A’s are 177, they’re half a game behind Cleveland for the second wildcard spot and 6½ games behind Houston in the AL West.

Seattle collected an early run when Mallex Smith singled to center, stole second and went to third on Matt Olson’s throwing error, then scored on J.P. Crawford’s sacrifice fly. The only other run off Anderson came on Tom Murphy’s solo homer in the fifth.

“You can tell with him if balls are on the ground early, he’s going to pitch well,” manager Bob Melvin said of Anderson.

Anderson went 61⁄3 innings to improve to 95 and his 18 starts are his most since 2015. He’s 42 with a 2.70 ERA against the AL West this year.

“I’ve always been confident in my ability to get people out when I’ve been healthy,” Anderson said. “Aside from a few nicks here and there, I’ve been able to go out and give us a chance to win, for the most part.”

The A’s first hit off Kikuchi was a solo homer by No. 9 hitter Franklin Barreto, his first since he was called up June 30.

Matt Olson led off the seventh with a groundrule double and Khris Davis followed with a base hit to right that Domingo Santana couldn’t pick up cleanly. Olson scored on the error, and Santana’s poor throw to the plate allowed Davis to get to second. A grounder by Mark Canha sent Davis to third and he came in on a sacrifice fly by Ramón Laureano.

Paul Blackburn, called up Friday because starter Tanner Anderson won’t be needed until July 17 at the earliest, was sent back out afterward and J.B. Wendelken will be recalled Saturday. Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.