Luis Castillo got chased in the fifth inning and the contending Seattle Mariners managed just one hit, falling to the Oakland A's 4-1.
Castillo is 3-2 in nine starts since being acquired from Cincinnati at the trade deadline. He matched his shortest outing of the season at 4 2/3 innings.
“I didn't feel frustrated. That's not my mentality,” Castillo said. “It was a bad day that every athlete has now and then.” Sears rediscovered his fastball command after two disappointing starts and won for the first time in five outings since beating Seattle on Aug. 21 in his only previous appearance against the Mariners.
“This team in our division they’ve had a lot of success over the last two seasons against our club and we’re aware of that, but at the same time we know our challenges with both of these teams being in the playoffs ... but that doesn’t mean that we can’t fight, that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to go out and compete every night and try to win baseball games," A's manager Mark Kotsay said."You saw that tonight. The bullpen came in in the sixth and did a great job.