Battling the flu and tonsillitis, A's 1B Daric Barton picked up a key pinch hit to lift Oakland over the Seattle Mariners 8-7 Saturday night. Barton, who hadn't played since Wednesday, delivered the game winning RBI on a single to right in the bottom of the eight inning. In his only at-bat of the game, Barton connected on a hanging slider from Seattle reliever Justin Thomas scoring Carlos Gonzalez from second base to put the A's ahead.
3B Jeff Baisley produced half of the A's offense, picking up four RBI on a 2-2 night. Huston Street pitched two scoreless innings for the win and rookie phenom Brad Ziegler shutdown the Mariners in the ninth for his qqth save of the season. Ziegler is 2-0 in his first season with the A's and has allowed jsut five earned runs in 44 games.
With the win, Oakland is 7-3 in their last ten and have won two straight contests. The A's look to complete a three game sweep over the Mariners when the two teams hit the field for a 1:05 pm start Sunday Afternoon.
