MathewFinger

So far, in the battle of two of the league's worst offenses, Oakland is outdoing the punchless Mariners when it comes to utter futility.

The A's ran their string of innings without a run to 18 on Friday at Safeco Field in a 4-0 loss to the Mariners. Making his fourth big-league start, Michael Pineda worked six scoreless innings for Seattle, which had shut out the A's 1-0 the night before behind Felix Hernandez.

The last time the A's were blanked in consecutive games was May 13-14, 2008, at Cleveland. The A's have lost three in a row, a season high.

Kevin Kouzmanoff missed home plate on the A's only real scoring opportunity, in the fifth, and was tagged out by catcher Miguel Olivo. Then the A's had the bases loaded in the ninth - something of an accomplishment in itself of late - but Brandon League got pinch hitter Conor Jackson to ground into a game-ending double play.

The A's are batting .236, the last-place Mariners .224. The A's 66 runs are second-fewest in the league, after the Twins, who are tied with the A's for the fewest homers, eight.

"You can't pout," Oakland second baseman Mark Ellis said. "No one feels sorry for you. But you know we're going to come out of it. Everyone in here can hit a little bit, and sooner or later we will. But it's not fun wasting a lot of good starts, games you could be winning. You hope that doesn't hurt you down the road."

Tyson Ross, who turned 24 Friday, made his first start of the season, pitching in place of Dallas Braden, who is on the disabled list with left shoulder stiffness. Despite some control issues, Ross allowed only one run through the first four innings, but things started to unravel in the fifth when he gave up a leadoff single to Jack Wilson, then a one-out walk.

Jerry Blevins took over and walked two more, including ex-A's designated hitter Jack Cust with the bases loaded, and Adam Kennedy slapped a two-run single to center. The total damage charged to Ross: four hits, four walks and three runs in 4 1/3 innings.

"The fastball command wasn't close to where it was in the spring or really close to where it needs to be," A's manager Bob Geren said.

Ross said he'll work between starts on staying on top of the ball, but, he said, he needs to get better at adjusting during the game when he starts getting on the side of the ball too much, the reason he felt he wasn't in the zone enough.

Pineda, 22, held Oakland down for the most part, even though at this point, it's hard to tell if it's the opposing pitching or the A's anemic attack that is more responsible for the string of zeros. Oakland had been shut out the previous night by reigning Cy Young winner Hernandez, and sometimes there's a carryover effect.

"That's a tough 1-2 combo," Ellis said. "And any time you face a guy for the first time, it's more difficult. He's really got a great arm."

Brad Ziegler got two strikeouts to end the fifth; he worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings and is unscored upon in all seven of his appearances this year.