A’s Beat Mariners, Take Over First Place

After 86 days, the Oakland Athletics have finally caught the Seattle Mariners.

Kevin Appier gave up one hit in seven innings and Ben Grieve hit a grand slam in a six-run seventh as the A’s beat Seattle, 8-2, Saturday to move past the Mariners into first place in the AL West.

“We’re only going to get better,” Grieve said. “A lot of guys on our team are really hot right now.”

The A’s have won the first three games of the four-game series to take the division lead for the first time since June 28. They’re 85-68 (.556) with nine games remaining, one percentage point ahead of Seattle, which is 86-69 (.555) and has seven games left.

“Those guys are relentless,” Mariner shortstop Alex Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez was 0 for 4 and committed his ninth error. He’s one for 12 for the series.

Oakland, coming off 5-2 and 8-3 wins in the first two games, improved to 8-1 on its road trip and 16-5 in September. In today’s series finale, John Halama pitches for Seattle against Ariel Prieto.

“We’re going to try to get a little greedy,” Oakland Manager Art Howe said.

Seattle had won eight in a row coming into the series but is hitting only .154 in the three games. The A’s are 9-3 against the Mariners, 5-1 in Seattle.

“We’re still tied for first place and we’re going to get the job done,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said, choosing to look at games back rather than percentage.

Appier (15-11) gave up only a score-tying, two-run homer to Edgar Martinez in the fourth, striking out seven and walking four.

“I think my experience helped a lot today,” Appier said. “Having been around for so long in these situations really keeps your focus. You don’t let the circumstances freak you out.”

He had been 0-3 with a 7.13 ERA against Seattle this season.

“I had a lot better command today,” Appier said. “In the three losses, I didn’t have good command.”

Jeff Tam and Doug Jones finished the two-hitter.

Ramon Hernandez put Oakland ahead in the seventh with an RBI double off Arthur Rhodes (4-8), and Terrence Long followed with a run-scoring single for a 4-2 lead.

Grieve homered to center with two out off Jose Paniagua, his third slam of the season and Oakland’s 13th, a major league record. After Grieve’s 27th homer of the season, the sellout crowd of 45,406 at Safeco Field began streaming out.

“To go from a two-run lead to a six-run lead was huge,” Grieve said.

With 102 RBIs, Grieve topped 100 for the first time. Atlanta (1997) and Cleveland (1999) had shared the record of 12 slams.

Oakland took a 2-0 lead in the second on Jeremy Giambi’s RBI double and Long’s run-scoring single. Martinez tied it with his 35th home run.