SEATTLE (AP) — George Kottaras homered for the second straight game, Brett Anderson won his fourth straight start since recovering from Tommy John surgery and the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1 Saturday night.
Anderson (4-0), who had surgery on his left elbow 14 months ago, allowed one unearned run and six hits while striking out four in six innings. He lowered his ERA to 0.69.
Stephen Drew had an RBI single and Coco Crisp had a run scoring double after Kottaras’ homer in Oakland’s four-run fourth inning that gave them a 5-1 lead.
The A’s kept pace in the AL West with the Texas Rangers, who beat Tampa Bay 4-2. Oakland trails the Rangers by 412 games and are in a virtual tie with the Yankees and Orioles atop the wild-card race.
Hisashi Iwakuma (6-4) gave up four runs and six hits in 3 2-3 innings.
