SEATTLE -- George Kottaras homered for the second straight game, Brett Anderson won his fourth straight start since recovering from Tommy John surgery and the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1 Saturday night. Anderson (4-0), who had surgery on his left elbow 14 months ago, allowed one unearned run and six hits while striking out four in six innings. He lowered his ERA to 0.69. Stephen Drew had an RBI single and Coco Crisp had a run scoring double after Kottaras homer in Oaklands four-run fourth inning that gave them a 5-1 lead. The As kept pace in the AL West with the Texas Rangers, who beat Tampa Bay 4-2. Oakland trails the Rangers by 4 1/2 games and are in a virtual tie with the Yankees and Orioles atop the wild-card race. With the score tied 1-1, Yoenis Cespedes opened Oaklands fourth with a double into the left-field corner. With one out, he stole third on a 1-0 pitch to Drew, who followed with a RBI single against the drawn-in infield. The ball just tipped off the glove of second baseman Dustin Ackley. Kottaras then hit a 1-1 fastball from Hisashi Iwakuma (6-4) for a two-run, line shot into the right-field seats to make it 4-1. It was his fifth home run of the season, and came one day after he had a three-run shot in the same inning Friday during the As 6-1 victory. The As continued to add on. Cliff Pennington singled and scored on Crisps double. Iwakuma worked 3 2-3 innings, allowing four earned runs and six hits. He walked two and struck out three. Over his previous seven starts, Iwakuma was 5-1 with a 1.57 ERA. Seattle finished 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. The As forced Iwakuma to throw 25 pitches in the first inning and scored a run without a hit. Crisp opened with an eight-pitch walk. He was forced at second on Josh Reddicks grounder. Cespedes followed with a two-out, one-hopper past third baseman Kyle Seager and into the left-field corner. It was ruled a two-base error, scoring Reddick. The Mariners tied it in the second. Michael Saunders bounced a one-out double over the centre-field wall. Miguel Olivo reached when shortstop Drew booted his ground ball, advancing Saunders to third. He then scored on Trayvon Robinsons force-out. Cespedes added a sacrifice fly in the ninth. NOTES: As RHP Brandon McCarthy, hit in the head by a line drive Wednesday, is showing good progress after his surgery to reduce brain swelling. "Id give him one more day (until hes out of the woods)," trainer Nick Paparesta said. "I think with any head injury you need to be cautious ... but the progress has been great and were all very excited about it." As manager Bob Melvin, who gathered the team together before the game for a medical update, said, "It puts a smile on your face." ... Reddicks single in the ninth snapped an 0-for-18 slump. ... Mariners manager Eric Wedge said rookie RHP Erasmo Ramirez, a September callup, will start Tuesday at Toronto. Hector Noesi also will be worked into the rotation. "We just want to take a look at them again," Wedge said. "Its a chance to watch them a little longer." ... Mariners LH reliever Oliver Perez has not allowed a run in his last 18 appearances (13.1 innings), or since July 8. Thats tied for the seventh-longest streak in club history. The Jays weekend in Anaheim wasnt a disaster. Far from it. In fact, there were many encouraging aspects of the two-and-two split with the Angels. Unfortunately, it was also a wasted opportunity to show the Halos into a deep hole. After winning the first two games on complete game shutouts by Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez, the Jays dropped the last two. That leaves them alone in the second Wild Card slot at 16-13 - four games ahead of Los Angeles. One more victory and the Jays would have been six games up. Kyle Drabek had his first less than stellar effort on Saturday. He walked five and only threw first pitch strikes to 10 of the 27 batters he faced. Drew Hutchison pitched well enough to win on Sunday, walking none and striking out six while giving up Albert Pujols first homer in an Angels uniform. Although they both homered once over the weekend, Jose Bautista and Adam Lind still arent hitting the way this club needs them too. Back to Hutchison for a second. Ive wondered a few times on TSN 1050 whether this 21 year old would benefit from a bit more development time in the minors. Well I decided to check out a few World Series clubs and one other that made it to the Fall Classic to see if they utilized young and relatively inexperienced starting pitchers. To my surprise they used more young starters than I would have expected. 1966 Baltimore Orioles: Jim Palmer, 21; Wally Bunker, 21; Dave McNally 23. 1969 New York Mets: Nolan Ryan, 22; Gary Gentry, 23; Tom Seaver, 24; Jerry Koosman, 25.dddddddddddd 1985 Kansas City Royals: Bret Saberhagen, 21; Danny Jackson, 23; Mark Gubicza 23. 2008 Tampa Bay Rays: David Price, 23; Scott Kazmir, 24; Matt Garza, 24; Andy Sonnanstine, 25; James Shields, 27. 2012 Blue Jays: Ricky Romero, 27; Brandon Morrow, 27; Kyle Drabek, 24; Henderson Alvarez, 22; Drew Hutchison, 21. So age isnt necessarily a detriment. It comes down to talent and maturity and having a quality bullpen behind you. Up next, the Jays hit Oakland for two on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. Ricky Romero will go for his fifth win on Tuesday against Oaklands Brandon McCarthy, while on Wednesday Brandon Morrow will go for his third straight victory as he takes on As rookie Jarrod Parker, who came over from Arizona in the trade that sent Trevor Cahill to the D-backs. Parker (1-0) will be making just his fourth Major League start. The As are the worst offensive team in the American League. But they are 15-14 on the strength of their rotation and their bullpen. Theyve coming off a 5-4 Eastern swing where they won the final two series, beating Boston and Tampa Bay two out of three. The Jays have scored 138 runs to just 97 for the As, and Oakland is only hitting .213 as a team. So these are two winnable games for the Jays if they can just get the bat going consistently up and down the line-up.
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