SEATTLE - He wasn’t exactly blowing hitters away in his first-ever big-league start, yet Chris Smith turned in some nice work as a fill-in for Oakland on Saturday.
At 36 the oldest A’s pitcher ever to make his first big-league start, Smith threw six solid innings and left with the game tied. The A’s went on to beat the Mariners 4-3 with the late-game heroics of Ryon Healy, who followed an intentional walk to Yonder Alonso by drilling a ground-rule double to right off Edwin Diaz. That sent in Rajai Davis with the go-ahead run with two outs in the ninth.