Valencia’s 2-run homer in 8th inning lifts Athletics over Mariners 4-2

Seth Smith hit a two-out, solo home run in the bottom of the eighth and the Seattle Mariners rallied for a 3-2 win over the Oakland Athletics in their season finale on Sunday.

Athletics: Oakland will open the 2016 season on April 4 hosting the Chicago White Sox.

In defeat, Mariners outfielder Brad Miller had three hits, but that wasn’t enough on a night when Oakland had 11 hits and left Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma with a no-decision. “I don’t know. Sometimes you do stuff that you can’t explain”.

Given a 5-4 lead to hold in the top of the ninth, Tom Wilhelmsen couldn’t close out a win, blowing his second save since taking over closing duties. The Athletics’ Mark Canha leads major-league rookies with 69 RBIs – one ahead of Houston’s Carlos Correa – while teammate Billy Burns’ 153 hits are the most among first-year players.

A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third before Brett Lawrie tied the game on a sacrifice fly to deep left.

J.C. Ramirez (0-1) pitched a ideal 12th inning before running into trouble in the 13th, giving up a leadoff single to Stephen Vogt and then gave up Semien’s homer on a 3-1 pitch. In his two-inning start, Elias allowed seven hits and four runs while walking three.

“Honestly, I was thinking he was going to take it or maybe try to bunt it”, Ramirez said.

Oakland was trying to complete its first sweep of three games or more since late June.

Another Seattle Mariners season is coming to a merciful end. In the third, he gave up a single and two walks to the first three batters he faced, leading to him being pulled with the bases loaded. It’s the longest current streak in baseball and the longest of Cano’s career. Sucre went 1-for-5 on Saturday and is now 5-for-11 in the past three games, raising his season batting average from. The A’s finished with the worst record in the AL for the third time in Oakland history. Pomeranz will get additional opinions before deciding whether to have the surgery. The A’s were the winningest team in all of spring training, 22-11.

LHP Vidal Nuno has been one of the more valuable pitchers on the Mariners’ staff this season, despite his 1-4 record and 5.36 ERA as a starter.

Nelson Cruz aggravated his strained right quadriceps muscle while running out a grounder in the ninth inning.

“That’s what I call alley-ball”, McClendon said.

Athletics: RHP Chris Bassitt (1-8, 3.60 ERA) will start the final game of the regular season for Oakland.

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Chris Bassitt throws against the…