Butler's Walk-Off Blast Erases Seattle's Four-Run Lead in the Ninth

Lawrence Butler hit two home runs and drove in four runs, including a walk-off two-run shot in the ninth inning that sent the Athletics past Seattle 8-7. The win probability swung from 39% to 100% on that final swing, a 402-foot rocket to right center that ended what looked like a Seattle victory.

The Athletics dug the hole themselves and then climbed out of it in spectacular fashion. Gelof and Butler went back-to-back in the first — both 405-foot shots — to stake ATH to an early 2-0 lead. Then Seattle took over. Randy Arozarena erased the deficit with a two-run homer in the third, and the Mariners piled on through the fourth and fifth, scoring four more runs on a Pereda sacrifice fly, a Crawford infield single, an Arozarena RBI single, and a bases-loaded walk to Pereda that made it 6-2. Bryce Miller was shaky — five walks in five innings — but Seattle's offense was doing enough damage that it didn't matter. Or so it seemed.

The seventh inning is where this game turned ugly for Seattle. ATH chipped away: a Gelof walk scored one, a Butler groundout scored another, and then Langeliers singled to right to score both McNeil and Gelof, tying the game at 6. Seattle challenged the Gelof walk call and lost — the call on the field was upheld — which, in hindsight, looks like a moment that defined the inning's momentum. Arozarena answered in the eighth with a solo shot to left, his second homer of the night, to put Seattle back in front 7-6. That lead lasted exactly one inning.

In the ninth, Gelof reached and Butler did what Butler had already done once — he went deep to right center, 402 feet, and just like that the win probability swung from 39% to 100% in ATH's favor. Final: 8-7. The story of the night was the mirror image at the top of each lineup: Arozarena went 3-for-5 with 2 HR and 4 RBI for Seattle, and Butler matched him exactly — 2-for-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI — for ATH. Gelof added a homer, two hits, and scored three times. Seattle did everything right for six innings and still lost, which appears to be the cruelest possible outcome of a game where both sides produced genuinely elite individual performances.