One day in Seattle hit a series of familiar notes for the A’s — a sky clogged by wildfire smoke, an injury to a key player, a doubleheader split.
After blowing a five-run lead in a 6-5 loss to the Mariners in Game 1, the A’s responded with a 9-0 win in Game 2 behind a seven-inning complete game by Mike Minor to keep their AL West lead at 6 ½ games over Houston and trim their magic number to clinch the division to six.
Both games were played in smoky conditions visible over the telecast at T-Mobile Park due to wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Online trackers showed an air quality index over 200 in the Seattle area; over 200 is considered very unhealthy.
“It was pretty smoky out there,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said after the doubleheader. “And guys were starting to feel it in the second game some. I think the numbers were pretty high.”
Oakland left-hander Jesús Luzardo had pointed words about the air quality after his start in the first game.
“When I came out, I think it was at 284,” Luzardo said. “I’m a healthy 22-year-old. I shouldn’t be gasping for air, I guess you could say, or missing oxygen when I’m kind of getting to the line. So I’ll leave it at that.”
Both managers met with stadium officials about the conditions Monday and the Mariners were in touch with city health officials while MLB kept the A’s updated, but the city did not recommend that play be halted.
The A’s have played recent home games amid poor air quality due to fires in Northern California. Melvin said conditions Monday in Seattle seemed worse. He said the question of whether to play was not posed to the A's.
“No one said a word,” Melvin said. “I heard 200 (AQI) was the cutoff level to start and my understanding is it was way over that, both games.”
Minor said early in Game 2, “I could feel it, smell it, whatever. As you got going, didn’t really notice. ... But I know a lot of the other guys were talking about it, saying how difficult it was.”
The A’s finished a stretch of 10 games in seven days going 6-4 and splitting all three doubleheaders in that span. They did not escape Monday’s games unscathed, as right fielder Stephen Piscotty, who ranks second on the team in RBIs, left Game 1 early with a right knee sprain.
Recent additions helped the A’s bounce back in Game 2. Minor, acquired at the trade deadline, held the Mariners to two hits in his best start of the year. The left-hander, who began the game with a 6.35 ERA, struck out eight batters and finished the game throwing 102 pitches, easing the load on a well-worked A’s bullpen.
“I feel like in the past, this whole year really, I’ve been trying to like trick guys, I guess, rather than just attacking them and kind of throwing four-seam fastballs at them,” Minor said. “Today we threw a lot of fastballs that I probably normally wouldn’t throw. And we had success with it.”
Jake Lamb, signed Monday to help offset the loss of third baseman Matt Chapman to a hip injury, doubled as part of a five-run third inning and added a solo homer in the sixth, going back-to-back with Mark Canha’s two-run shot. Oakland sent 10 men to the plate in the third. Ramón Laureano flared a two-run double, Jonah Heim and Robbie Grossman had RBI singles and Heim scored on a Marcus Semien RBI fielder’s choice.
“You always want to come in and make an impact,” Lamb said. “Hit a couple balls well ... so that was a lot of fun.”
The A’s led 5-0 in Game 1 after Semien hit an RBI single in the second inning and followed Sean Murphy’s solo homer in the fourth with a three-run shot. But Seattle chipped away at Luzardo, who had six strikeouts through three innings before stumbling. Luis Torrens and Jose Marmolejos hit solo homers against Luzardo and Kyle Lewis hit a two-run homer that made it 5-4 in the fifth.
“I probably didn’t change third time around” the Mariners’ order, Luzardo said. “I need to make adjustments and I didn’t make them today.”
Reliever Joakim Soria allowed a game-tying RBI double to Tim Lopes in the sixth before walking three consecutive hitters, with a four-pitch pass to Lewis forcing in the go-ahead run.
After playing at Texas on Sunday and in Seattle on Monday, the A’s flew to Colorado to begin a series with the Rockies on Tuesday. Melvin said Piscotty, who “felt a little pop” in his knee leaping for Torrens’ homer at the right-field wall in Game 1, will have his knee looked at in Colorado. Melvin said the initial diagnosis is a sprain in the patellar tendon.
Chronicle A’s beat writer Susan Slusser contributed to this report.
Matt Kawahara covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara
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