Seattle needed to get out of Oakland with one win and they played like their season depended upon getting the victory, they held on to win 7-6 in eleven innings.

Ken Macha made some managerial moves for the first time in his tenure as A’s skipper.

Some turned out well and others came back to haunt him.

Click below and I’ll tell you what I saw.First of all, Macha stayed with Mulder through a very rough stretch when the lefty clearly wasn’t on his game. Mulder was one batter from being removed in the fourth inning, but he retired Edgar Martinez with the bases loaded and then hung around for two more innings.

Macha let Micah Bowie pitch two and even let the lefty face some righties with the team still trailing 4-3. Bowie repaid his managers confidence by performing exceedingly well. Much sharper than Ricardo Rincon who was rocked for a Ben Davis homer in the 11th and more which eventually cost the A’s the game.

The A’s bunted twice. Mark Ellis got the job done in the 9th after Chris Singleton singled off a sub par Kazuhiro Sasaki to lead off the ninth inning. The strategy worked when Scott Hatteberg drove Singleton in with a single to tie the game.

Keith Foulke came out for a second inning of work after the A’s tied the score in the 9th, but got hit very hard. Some relievers don’t like to get up and come out again, maybe Foulke fits into that class. Also, some relievers don’t fare as well in non save situations, maybe Foulke is one of those. Anyway, Macha brought him out for a second inning and the Mariners scored a run on a misplayed ball by Chris Singleton, but Seattle hit the ball hard in that inning nonetheless.

Macha pinch hit for Erubiel Durazo when Arthur Rhodes came into the game in the 7th. Adam Piatt was unsuccessful in that at bat, but the move came back to haunt Macha later on. Seattle only has one lefty reliever and once Rhodes was gone in favor of Jeff Nelson the A’s were stuck with Piatt and no lefthanded replacement to face Nelson.

Piatt eventually became the last out in the game when Bob Melvin intentionally walked Eric Chavez (the winning run) to face Piatt.

Piatt also hit into a double play and struck out in other key at bats. Not a good day for him.

Melvin was so desperate to win the game that he allowed Nelson to throw 55 pitches to finally nail down the last out.

Durazo’s would have changed the complexion of the game if he had stayed in and the second guess is legitimate because Piatt does not have a very good track record coming off the bench against tough righties.

So, even though Seattle only had righties in the pen, Durazo was pulled for Piatt.

Ricardo Rincon had little on the ball and was roughed up for two runs. Chad Bradford in hindsight, would have been a better choice because of his sinker, since the ball was flying in the the late afternoon air.

The A’s lost the game with their closer pitching two innings in a non save situation and their biggest offensive threat (Durazo) of the young season on the bench.

A thoroughly entertaining game which demonstrated that Ken Macha will go outside the norm to follow his hunches. It will be interesting to read his explanations of these moves if anyone asked the questions after the game.

Now the world champions come into Oakland and face the newly renovated Ted Lilly, a lefty. Anaheim hit lefties pretty hard last year, so this will be a good test. It’s early in the year so, Kevin Appier ought to be well rested for Anaheim.

This series should be outstanding, John Halama, the Angel killer, on Saturday versus Jarrod Washburn then Hudson on Sunday.

Pretty good baseball.