SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jeff Cirillo slowly may be emerging from his slump.
Cirillo hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to help back a strong effort by Joel Pineiro and lift the Seattle Mariners to a 4-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Batting a woeful .135 (5-for-37) entering the contest, Cirillo reached Mark Mulder for his first homer of the season and just the third of his career at Safeco Field. The two-out blast gave Seattle a 4-3 lead.
Cirillo started the season with just one hit in his first 28 at-bats before going 4-for-4 in Saturday's game against Texas. He struggled Sunday, going 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
"I always take pride in my defense and if you're not getting any hits, at least you don't give any up, so that's what I've been trying to do," said Cirillo, a third baseman. "My attitude has been good. Granted, I am still not at the .200 level, but I'm enjoying myself."
"I told him the other night after his four hits that it was OK to smile," Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. "I know he grinds a little bit and he expects a lot out of himself, but to see him have a couple of good nights and tonight was obviously paramount."
Cirillo's sixth hit of the year helped make a winner of Pineiro (1-1), who gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out two.
Arthur Rhodes retired the side in order in the eighth and Kazuhiro Sasaki worked around a leadoff single in the ninth for his second save.
Mulder (1-1), who won his previous seven decisions, gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings. The lefthander walked one and struck out two.
Ramon Hernandez hit a solo homer for the A's, who have lost five in a row for their longest losing streak since a seven-game slide from April 8-15, 2001.
"I don't think there is one person alive who wants a five-game losing streak," Oakland manager Ken Macha said.
With the game tied, 2-2, the A's broke through for a run in the sixth. Singles by Chris Singleton and Eric Chavez put runners on the corners with one out and Jermaine Dye lofted a sacrifice fly.
Mulder retired the first two batters in the bottom of the inning before Carlos Guillen singled. Cirillo followed by sending a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall.
"It's good to get a hit in a big situation like that," Cirillo said. "Actually, I didn't even know where I hit it. I was looking around for it and it was down the line. I thought I hit the ball to left-center. I just really hit it good and it just barely had enough."
"Just a couple of things didn't go our way in the first inning and I made a mistake on the cutter to Cirillo," Mulder said. "That's just the way it goes sometimes. I was trying to pitch him inside and it just didn't move. In my opinion, that's the only mistake I made."
Pineiro worked around a one-out walk in the seventh and turned things over to the bullpen. Rhodes needed 10 pitches to work through the heart of the Oakland order in the eighth.
Dye started the ninth with a single, but Sasaki retired Erubiel Durazo, Terrence Long and Scott Hatteberg to end it.
The A's broke on top in the first. Singleton doubled with one and came home one out later on a single by Chavez.
But the Mariners answered in the bottom of the inning. Ichiro Suzuki led off with an infield hit and took third on Randy Winn's single.
Bret Boone kept things going with a ground rule double to plate Suzuki and Edgar Martinez followed with a sacrifice fly, giving the Mariners a 2-1 lead.
Hernandez tied it in the third with a leadoff homer, his first of the season.
