A's lose another close one as 'pen falters

SEATTLE -- The A's relived the same nightmare that's been haunting them for the better part of the early going of this season Friday, their bullpen unable to hold a lead in a familiar loss -- only to the backdrop of a different city.

Dan Otero's first pitch of the 11th inning of this three-game series opener against the Mariners resulted in a walk-off home run for Logan Morrison, closing the book on the A's bullpen's ninth loss in just 31 games.

At 12-19, the A's have their worst record after 31 games since 2001 (11-20).

The long ball came four innings after Evan Scribner, one of few reliable relief arms the A's are carrying these days, snapped an 8 2/3-inning scoreless streak by allowing Seattle to score two runs and tie the game in the seventh inning.

The right-hander allowed a leadoff base hit to Dustin Ackley, who scored on Brad Miller's two-out double. That's when A's manager Bob Melvin turned to left-hander Fernando Abad, who offered up a game-tying double to Robinson Cano.

Sonny Gray's six innings of one-run ball, with nine strikeouts, went for naught.

Video: OAK@SEA: Gray tosses six strong against the Mariners

"It's getting to the point where it's very frustrating," said outfielder Josh Reddick, who hit a two-run homer in the fifth. "But those guys are big league pitchers. They're here for a reason. Nobody is here to badmouth anybody. But at some point we've got to have somebody that steps up, bottom line.

"You go out there and score runs for your guy and Sonny goes out and gives an A-plus effort no matter what and gets out of jams. We just got to have someone step up, and when someone does everyone else jumps right on with him."

The A's fell to 0-5 in extra-inning games, and 1-9 in one-run games.

"We're obviously a lot better than how we're playing," said Gray. "I really believe that. We've made a few mistakes here and there, and when you're playing in close games like we have been, they just really come back to bite you. Pretty much every game we've played this year that we've lost, we've been in a lot of them. We've been right there. Hopefully sometime soon we can start being on the other side of these games."