Mariners take over first place in AL West with huge road sweep of A's

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Coming into a rival's short-term home, the Mariners finally found something of a comfort zone of their own this week.

They dominated a three-game series against the Athletics and ripped away sole possession of first place in the American League West for the first time this season.

All along, this is where the Mariners expected to be.

Whether they can make their stay atop the division something more than a temporary home will take more than a few good days and a few good swings, but their 9-1 victory Wednesday afternoon revealed a killer instinct this Mariners team hasn't shown at any point in a wonky start to a season of such great hope.

In a word, progress.

They're hoping they can now turn that progress into momentum.

Heck of a series, and today was kind of an exclamation point," M's manager Dan Wilson said. "This is as good as we've played all season long and as consistent as we've been."

The M's outscored the A's 22-4 in the series and claimed first place in the division after the A's had held it for the previous 45 days.

"We saw a lot in this series in terms of who we are. It was just outstanding," Wilson said.

Logan Gilbert set the tone for a winning road trip with a scoreless start in Kansas City on Friday. He was even better to close out the trip Wednesday, scattering five hits over six shutout innings against a potent A's lineup in a tiny Triple-A ballpark.

Gilbert walked two and struck out six. In these two road starts, he combined for 11 2/3 scoreless innings, with seven hits, four walks and 12 strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 3.69 in his first 12 starts of the season.

"The timing is great," Gilbert said. "Being a resilient team is stuff we talk about, but to go out there and actually do it, and against a good team that was in first place at their place - that's exactly how we wanted the series to go. All the way around - offense, defense - I think everybody's on a good page right now."

Rob Refsnyder hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Julio Rodríguez added a three-run blast in the eighth and rookie Colt Emerson drove in two runs with his first career triple.

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J.P. Crawford had his first three-hit game of the season; Josh Naylor, Cole Young and Emerson each added two hits, and the M's tallied 13 hits for their fourth consecutive double-digit hit game.

Refsnyder turned on a 3-2 changeup that A's lefty Jeffrey Springs left up in the zone and yanked it out to left field for a three-run home run in the first inning. That came one batter after A's second baseman Jeff McNeil made a two-out throwing error to extend the inning for the M's.

"Getting that three-run lift right there allows Logan to go out there and have a little fun and get settled," Wilson said. "You can't say enough about that at-bat and what a lift it was for us."

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It was the third home run of the season for the 35-year-old Refsnyder - first since his pinch-hit, ninth-inning game-winner in St. Louis on April 26 - in what has been a challenging start to his Mariners tenure.

Refsnyder entered the game hitting .113 with a .392 OPS, but he has a long track record of success against left-handed pitching and Wilson continues to insert him into the lineup because of that.

And given the Mariners' larger struggles against lefties, the A's strategically altered their rotation plans this week to bring up 23-year-old lefty Gage Jump for his big-league debut Tuesday and then start Springs on Wednesday (and pushing right-hander Luis Severino back several extra days).

"I don't blame them," Refsnyder said. "We haven't been very good against lefties, and I haven't really done my job at this point. So, yeah, I get it."

This time, the M's beat both lefties, improving to 9-9 in games started by an opposing left-hander.

Refsnyder does have a track record against Springs, and his 107.7-mph blast Wednesday was his third homer off the veteran lefty in nine career at-bats.

"Early in the year, we were trying to figure out why I was missing some pitches that I just shouldn't be missing," said Refsnyder, who credited the training staff for helping him manage a chronic injury in his right knee. " … Kudos (to) the medical team for pinpointing some stuff and, yeah, I think we're on the right track.

In the eighth, Rodríguez turned on a 97-mph fastball at the top of the zone from A's right-hander Luis Medina and sent it 418 feet out to the entrance of the visitors' clubhouse beyond the fence in left-center. It was Rodríguez's 10th homer of the season and eighth this month.

BOX SCORE

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 4:51 PM.