A’s Beat Mariners in Ninth, 6-5

Bobby Crosby’s sacrifice fly with one out in the ninth inning scored pinch-runner Esteban German with the winning run in the Oakland Athletics’ 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.

The A’s maintained their one-game lead in the AL West over the second-place Angels, who won, 5-3, at Texas.

Oakland held Ichiro Suzuki to one hit, leaving him five shy of George Sisler’s 84-year-old record of 257.

Octavio Dotel (5-2) pitched a perfect ninth, getting two strikeouts and Mark Kotsay’s clutch catch against the center-field wall on a hard-hit ball by Jose Lopez.

Erubiel Durazo hit a bloop double off Ron Villone (7-6) leading off the bottom half, a ball between left fielder Raul Ibanez and Lopez, the shortstop. The two didn’t communicate, and the ball went off Lopez’s glove and fell to the ground in shallow left.

Jermaine Dye’s groundout moved Durazo to third, then Scott Hatteberg drew an intentional walk to put runners on the corners. German ran for Durazo, and Marco Scutaro walked.

Crosby lined a 1-and-0 pitch to right to win it.

The A’s, the two-time defending division champions, have been in first place in the AL West for 53 straight days -- their longest stretch since 1992, when they spent the final 61 days of the season in sole possession of the lead.

Suzuki went one for four with a seventh-inning single.