OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- They may not admit it, but the Seattle Mariners needed this one - a couple of times.
Ben Davis' first hit of the season was a home run in the top of the 11th inning and Mark McLemore plated a key insurance run as the Mariners edged the Oakland Athletics, 7-6, in the finale of a three-game series.
Seattle - baseball's winningest team the last three-plus seasons - dropped the first two games of the series and squandered ninth- and 10th-inning leads in this one before hanging on for the win. The Mariners saw closer Kazuhiro Sasaki roughed up in the ninth and setup man Jeff Nelson nearly waste two leads.
But after the Athletics tied it in the bottom of the 10th on a solo homer by Terrence Long, the Mariners scored twice against reliever Ricardo Rincon (0-1).
Davis was 0-for-9 this season when he drilled a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left-center field.
"I knew what I was doing," Davis said. "I think the adrenaline was getting the best of me beginning of the year, wanting to get off to a good start and swinging too hard got the best of me. He left that one up a little bit and I was able to take advantage of it."
Nelson (1-0) surrendered Long's homer in the 10th and a sacrifice fly to Jermaine Dye in the 11th before striking out Adam Piatt with the tying run at second base.
"We just kept persevering and battling back," Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. "You lose two games, you take the lead and then you give it up in the ninth and you get another run and you give it up again, so that's the character of this team. Hopefully, that gets us over the hump a little bit."
Sasaki started the ninth and immediately got in trouble. He surrendered a leadoff single to Chris Singleton, who moved up on a sacrifice by Mark Ellis. Scott Hatteberg singled up the middle and took second one out later on a wild pitch.
Sasaki, who has been battling a sore elbow, intentionally walked Eric Chavez before Dye flied out, sending the game to extra innings.
The Mariners forged ahead in the 10th on a sacrifice fly by Mike Cameron, but Nelson could not protect the lead, giving up a one-out homer to Long.
Rincon started the 11th and immediately surrendered the homer to Davis. He got the next two batters but, Randy Winn walked, stole second and scored on McLemore's double to the left-center field gap.
Nelson allowed a leadoff single in the 11th and a throwing error by usually sure-handed first baseman John Olerud enabled Hatteberg to reach. Miguel Tejada grounded out and Chavez was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Nelson gave up a sacrifice fly to Dye before striking out Piatt on four pitches.
"It was almost like it was like it wasn't meant to be," Nelson said. "After the first guy gets on and then the next thing you know, you get a ground ball and with Hatteberg, he's probably an easy double play. And the next thing you know, it's second and third with nobody out and then their big boy's coming up. I was like, `Man, are we meant to win this thing for him yet?'"
"We had the bases loaded in the last inning and only got one run in, but we had a lot of fight in us," A's manager Ken Macha said.
Mariners starter Joel Pineiro allowed three runs and five hits in six innings.
"He struggled with his command a little bit early but battled, and that's the way he is," Melvin said. "He's never going to give up and never going to let down, and he threw some pitches out there but got through six innings. And we had a lead when he came out of there and did a nice job."
Seattle broke on top 2-0 in the first against A's starter Mark Mulder. Ichiro Suzuki, who entered the game 7-for-16 against the lefthander, opened the contest with a single.
Winn doubled and Edgar Martinez made it 1-0 with a groundout. Bret Boone followed with a run-scoring double.
Oakland halved the deficit in its half of the first when an error by shortstop Willie Bloomquist allowed Ellis to score.
Seattle extended its lead to 4-1 in the fourth as Suzuki drove in a run with a single and Martinez forced home another by walking with the bases loaded. But Oakland answered quickly, scoring twice on doubles by Chavez and Dye and a single by Erubiel Durazo.
Trailing, 4-3, the A's had a chance to tie it in the seventh, but Arthur Rhodes struck out Chavez with a runner at third.
Mulder surrendered four runs and eight hits in six innings. Micah Bowie followed with two hitless innings.
"Mark didn't have great command today, but his stuff was good," Macha said. "They had a couple of well-placed hits early in the game and took advantage of them. They executed well."
The game, originally scheduled to be played in Japan late last month, drew just 6,295 fans - the smallest crowd for Oakland since April 13, 1999.
