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SEATTLE -- Five runs equals two victories.
That's a rare equation for success over a three-game series, but the A's threw baseball logic out the window at Safeco Field, and somehow it all worked out for them.
They mustered just two hits Wednesday afternoon, but both were home runs. Combined with another impressive performance from rookie right-hander Jarrod Parker, it was enough to eke out a 2-1 over the Seattle Mariners before a crowd of 18,158.
The A's took two of three in the series despite collecting just five runs and 10 hits total. They won 1-0 on Monday and lost 3-2 on Tuesday.
"We've been pretty good in June offensively," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "For whatever reason, we didn't swing the bats very well here at all. But to come out with two wins, you can't be upset with that."
Coco Crisp led off the game with a homer off Kevin Millwood. The Seattle starter would leave with a groin injury in the third and was relieved by Hisashi Iwakuma, the Japanese right-hander the A's tried unsuccessfully to sign in the winter of 2010.
Iwakuma held the A's without a hit until Yoenis Cespedes lined a slider into the seats in left-center field in the seventh for a 2-1 Oakland lead.
The A's became just the ninth major league team since 1918 to win a game with only two hits in which are both solo homers, according to stats expert David Feldman. The last time it had been done was by Toronto in 2007.
It's no way to
Although their recent woeful hitting doesn't inspire confidence going into a four-game series at American League West-leading Texas, their superb pitching of late surely does.
Parker (4-3) worked seven innings and gave up just three hits. He walked four but struck out a career-high nine, the only damage coming on John Jaso's homer in the second.
His ERA is now 2.57 -- lowest among A.L. rookie starters -- and he continues to show why he was the centerpiece of the three-player package the A's received in the December trade that sent pitchers Trevor Cahill and Craig Breslow to Arizona.
Parker has given up one run or fewer in six of his past seven outings. And he joined Dwight Gooden as the only starters since 1918 to allow one run or fewer in nine of their first 13 career starts (1918 is the furthest back baseball-reference.com archives go).
Melvin was asked jokingly if Parker was the next Gooden.
"He doesn't throw a curveball like Gooden," Melvin responded with a smile.
He didn't know about the history Parker shares with Gooden.
"Wow, that's a nice stat," Melvin said. "Evidently he is."
Parker, who spotted his fastball on both sides of the plate to set up a very effective changeup, also was unaware of the feat he and Gooden share.
"That's pretty cool," he said. "I try to cut the game into thirds. That's what I've been taught to do. If you give up one run per three (innings), you're doing pretty well."
A's reliever Grant Balfour delivered a scoreless eighth and rookie Ryan Cook survived a tense ninth for his sixth save of the season.
An error by third baseman Brandon Inge in the ninth and a hit batsman with two outs put the tying run at second, but Cook struck out Ichiro Suzuki swinging on a fastball to end it.
"I don't think we say if we win 'x' games we can get that much closer to them," he said. "I think you start looking at that a little bit later in season. (The key) is just to create some momentum where we start believing we can do some things late in the season."
The Rangers rotation has been decimated by injuries. Colby Lewis, suffering forearm tendinitis, recently joined Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz and Alexi Ogando on the disabled list. Scott Feldman will fill in for Lewis in Thursday's series opener.
Texas, though, has continued to roll with a 47-29 record.
He'll throw another one Sunday, but the left-hander still appears at least a month away from rejoining the A's. The downtime has allowed him to watch young pitchers such as Parker and Tommy Milone emerge in Oakland's rotation.
"It's awesome, they've been dealing," Anderson, 24, said. "I feel older. That's how Trevor (Cahill), Vinny (Mazzaro) and I got thrust on the scene in '09. They've grown day by day, week by week."
