A’s bats, Colon blow away the Mariners

OAKLAND COLISEUM — The A’s weren’t about to get swept by the Mariners, so they broke out of their offensive funk in a huge way.

Oakland pounded out 17 hits and scored ten unanswered runs to rout Seattle 10-2 on Father’s Day in front of a sold-out crowd of 36,067.

Josh Reddick finally came out of his season-long slump, going 4-for-5 with a home run, triple, and two RBIs. Josh Donaldson and Seth Smith hit back-to-back blasts in the seventh inning, and Brandon Moss also went deep as the A’s homered four times in support of ageless wonder Bartolo Colon.

Colon won his sixth straight decision, giving up eight hits and two runs over seven innings. Colon (9-2, 2.89 ERA) is now tied for the league lead in wins with Detroit’s Max Scherzer and Boston’s Clay Buchholz.

Reddick says he thinks Colon is deserving of being the starting pitcher in the upcoming All-Star Game:

A’s right fielder Josh Reddick

Audio: Ryan Leong/SFBay

“That’d be awesome to see him especially towards the end of his career, he’s coming down and thinking about retirement. But you never know he could pitch until he’s 45 but I think we’d all be watching that if he was the starter.”

The Mariners took a 2-0 lead on an RBI single by Endy Chavez in the second inning. For a time it appeared the A’s were staring at their first home sweep of 2013. But a diving catch by Reddick in the second inning gave Colon a second wind, with the chunky right-hander going on to retire 12 in a row.

Manager Bob Melvin was very pleased by the outing:

A’s manager Bob Melvin

Video: CSN California

“Seven hits in the first two innings, gave up eight … so quite a recovery. We’re probably one hitter away from getting somebody up (in the bullpen) and he pitches seven innings. And we’ve seen him do some pretty remarkable things this year and this probably ranks right up there.”

From that point forward, the A’s bats came alive. Two runs scored in the fourth on an RBI double by Smith and a run-scoring single from Reddick.

In the fifth, Yoenis Cespedes smashed a line double to left-center to bring in John Jaso before Moss followed with a RBI single.

In the seventh, the A’s blew it open with a long home run to left center by Donaldson. Up next, Smith outdid his teammate with a long blast to the second deck in right field.

Moss and Reddick joined in on the home run derby with solo shots in the eighth.

The A’s (42-29) haven’t been swept at home since last season, and the win — coupled with a Rangers’ loss — extended Oakland’s lead in the American League West to three games.

It couldn’t be more timely as the Athletics are headed to Arlington for a four game-series. Donaldson said:

A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson

Video: CSN California

“I think we’ve been playing really well as of late. The Mariners the first two games came in here and were playing  just as well as we were and catching a little bit of the breaks and we weren’t. Going into Texas it’s going to give us an opportunity to take the next step to where we want to be and hopefully go in there and win some games.”

In a crisis never before seen in the 47-year history of the Oakland Coliseum, both Mariners and A’s players had to use the showers in the Raiders locker room after both clubhouses and the umpires’ room were flooded with raw sewage.

The cause of the blockage was on the clubhouse level, Vice President of Stadium Operations David Rinetti told the Chronicle’s Susan Slusser.

The umpires and Mariners manager Eric Wedge left the facility without showering. It was an odd sight to see players from both teams wearing towels and walking up and down one stairway in shower shoes with them to the Raiders locker room.

A’s reliever Sean Doolittle had this whimsical tweet to describe the post-game experience:

Doolittle also said aloud in the clubhouse, “where’s Jon Heyman?” He and the sports writer had a Twitter war during the Bay Bridge series when Heyman tweeted the following:

That created a firestorm of controversy regarding the Coliseum, which, having debuted in 1966, is one of the oldest stadiums in baseball outside of Boston’s Fenway Park (1912), Chicago’s Wrigley Field (1914), and Dodger Stadium (1962) in Los Angeles.

Notes

The A’s have won four of their last six and 14 of 20 games overall. … It’s the fifth time this season the A’s have hit back-to-back home runs. … Colon is 6-0 with a 1.04 ERA (5 er in 43.0 ip) in his last six starts. Colon has also pitched seven innings in four of his last five starts. … Reddick for the third time in his career had four hits, most recently: May 11, 2012 vs. Detroit. … Losing pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma allowed two runs in the fourth inning ending his scoreless  streak at 31-2/3 innings pitched. It was the second longest streak in Mariners history without allowing an earned run (longest: 34.0, Mark Langston Sept. 14-29, 1988)