A's fall into first place tie after loss to M's

— -- OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Had it not been for a crazy bounce,Ichiro Suzuki would have added another hit to his astonishingtotal.

Suzuki had two hits to move within three of tying the seasonrecord, and the Seattle Mariners pounded Oakland starter Tim Hudsonin a 7-2 victory Tuesday night that dropped the Athletics into afirst-place tie with Anaheim. The Angels won 8-2 at Texas.

In his second at-bat, Suzuki hit a sharp liner that went offHudson's back and bounced in front of shortstop Bobby Crosby, whohad to make a tough play to get Suzuki at first. Had Hudson notgotten in the way, it would've been a line drive up the middle.

"Of course when that ball hit Hudson, he acted like it didn'teven hit him. He didn't show any pain," Suzuki said. "Even thoughhe's the enemy, he's a great pitcher and someone I really like."

Oakland dropped out of sole possession of first place for thefirst time in 54 days, since the team was a half-game behind Texason Aug. 5.

Bret Boone hit a two-run homer and Jeremy Reed had a doubleamong his three hits and also drove in a run. Gil Meche (7-6) wonhis third straight decision to beat the A's for the first time innine career starts.

Greg Dobbs added two hits and two RBI for Seattle (61-96),trying to avoid the club's first 100-loss season since 1983. TheA's have lost six of eight.

"Once we figure out how to pitch to Reed and Dobbs, we'll be ingood shape," Hudson said. "We're not supermen out there. Allthose darn September callups, that's our kryptonite, I guess. Fivegames left and we're all knotted up. We need to win three of fiveand they need to lose three of five."

Suzuki led off the game with a double to right-center, thensingled to start the fifth. He finished 2-for-5 and needs four hitsin Seattle's final five games to break George Sisler's 84-year-oldrecord of 257 hits in a season.

"Five games left and it's been a good season for me. I hope Idon't regret anything and go out there and finish it off," Suzukisaid.

The A's issued 140 credentials to visiting media for thisfour-game series -- mostly to the Japanese media covering Suzuki'severy move.

Suzuki had a .211 career average entering against Hudson (12-6),who has just one win in his past five starts. Suzuki has aneight-game hitting streak -- all on the road -- and is batting .486(18-for-37) during the stretch.

Seattle's recent success -- the Mariners have won five of theirlast seven games -- has lifted the mood in the clubhouse, and Suzukihas sensed a more positive environment.

"I don't know if I can say it's helped me get hits," he said."But when the team is winning and you have a good atmosphere, it'soverall a better situation."

The Mariners tagged the Hudson for three runs on four hits inthe first inning -- Suzuki's double, Edgar Martinez's RBI single tocenter, a double by Raul Ibanez and Reed's run-scoring single. Theright-hander allowed seven runs on 11 hits in six innings, struckout three and didn't walk a batter.

Suddenly, the A's are staggering after brilliant Septembers inrecent seasons.

The 53 days in first was their longest stretch leading thedivision since 1992, when they spent the final 61 days on top.Oakland is trying to reach the playoffs for the fifth straightseason after losing in the first round the past four years.

The two-time defending division champs had a four-game divisionlead entering play on Sept. 5, but have gone 8-14 since. They are11-15 this month, with the 15 losses being their most in one monthsince the club was 10-17 in May 2002.

Oakland went 70-30 the past four Septembers -- the best mark inthe majors.

Erubiel Durazo tripled in the fourth for the A's after Reed costthe designated hitter a homer with a leaping stop against the wallin center field. The ball would've cleared the fence, but Reeddeflected it off the bottom of his glove and the ball landed on thewarning track.

First-base umpire Doug Eddings initially signaled a home run.After Reed and Mariners manager Bob Melvin protested the call, theumpires met to review the play, then called Durazo back to third.He scored moments later on Jermaine Dye's sacrifice fly.

Eric Chavez scored on Durazo's hit after leading off the inningwith a double.

Other than that inning, Meche shut down the A's lineup. Heretired the side in order in the first and fifth and didn't allowmore than one baserunner in the second, third and sixth.

He walked Chavez in the seventh to load the bases, then gave wayto Ron Villone, who got Durazo on a foul popout.

Meche allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. He didn'tknow until recently that he'd never beaten the A's.

"I thought about it on the bench when I was done that it wouldprobably be my first win against them," he said.Game notesOakland's Mark Kotsay singled in the third to extend hishitting streak to 15 games, an A's season high. ... Meche was 0-4with a 4.78 ERA in his first eight outings vs. Oakland. ... The A'sstarters are 5-10 since Sept. 5 and have tossed six of fewerinnings 12 times during that span.