Mariners continue hot streak, shut out Oakland for fifth consecutive victory

OAKLAND, Calif. — He won’t always deliver these sorts of dominant results. Given the tools he has to work with and a reliance on command more than stuff, there will still be hiccups and clunkers on occasion.

The progression and build of Marco Gonzales into the pitcher that general manager Jerry Dipoto described when acquiring him last season in a less-than-popular trade has slowed and stalled at times, mostly last season. But now with a completely healthy left arm and the mental reassurance that it will remain that way, Gonzales believes he’s finally capable of becoming the pitcher Dipoto so often touted.

That evolution continued on Wednesday night at the Oakland Coliseum with probably his best outing of his career in Seattle’s 1-0 win over the A’s. Gonzales pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits with two walks and six strikeouts, while his teammates provided the minimal amount of run support for victory.

“We needed everything he gave us tonight,” manager Scott Servais said.

With their fifth straight win, the Mariners notched another series victory. They are 11-3-3 in series this season. They can go for their first series sweep of the season Thursday afternoon with Felix Hernandez getting the start.

“This is what good teams do, they find a way to win,” Servais said.

But the night belonged to Gonzales, who improved to 4-3 and lowered his ERA to 4.05. Over his last two starts, Gonzales has allowed just one unearned run in 122/3 innings.

“Marco is on a nice roll,” Servais said. “You can really see his confidence grow. I can’t be any more proud of him. He’s kind of taking the next step.”

That next step was starting and finishing the seventh inning, something he’s never done in his career.

“It had bits and pieces of some of my best stuff,” Gonzales said. “Lots of ground balls tonight. That was huge. I was just trying to get quick outs and banking on these guys swinging.”

Using solid fastball command and flowing with confidence in his secondary pitches, Gonzales worked his way through an A’s lineup filled with right-handed hitters, but missing slugger Khris Davis.

“I feel really good — health-wise, first and foremost,” he said. “That is definitely the best I’ve felt in my career. That in itself gives me confidence to go out and be able to throw a baseball the next day with no pain. That’s a beautiful thing.”

The two hits allowed both came off the bat of Jed Lowrie, and one was an infield single. The only trouble he had in this outing was self-made and came in the fourth inning after the Mariners had provided him with a 1-0 lead. Gonzales opened the bottom of the fourth by walking Chad Pinder and Lowrie, which is less than ideal. It earned him a visit from pitching Mel Stottlemyre.

“Mel just said, ‘You’ve got good stuff, let’s just attack these guys and get out of this,’ ” Gonzales said.

He did that. He got Matt Chapman to line out to center. And with runners on first and third and one out, he struck out Mark Canha for the key out of the inning.

Gonzales retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.

The Mariners mustered only one run against A’s starter Daniel Gossett. Guillermo Heredia doubled to left to start the inning. He later scored on Kyle Seager’s ground ball to shortstop.

In the eighth inning with Juan Nicasio on the mound, John Andreoli, who was making his big-league debut after being called up earlier in the day, made a nice running/lunging grab on what would’ve been a leadoff double off the bat of Jonathan Lucroy.

“I thought I had a good jump off the bat,” Andreoli said. “I thought I had a good bead on it. I saw (Heredia) running behind me and I knew it was mine. And I just went after it.”

Then with one out and pinch-runner Dustin Fowler attempting to steal, Mike Zunino made a brilliant throw to second despite getting an awful pitch to receive and throw on. Zunino made up for it by getting rid of the ball quickly, with his throw beating the speedy Fowler.