OAKLAND Mike Piazza Jersey , Calif. — Seattle Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez will be seeking one of the most important wins in his grand history against the Oakland Athletics on Sunday afternoon when he pitched the finale of a four-game series between American League playoff hopefuls.The third-place Mariners (76-60) gave their hopes of overtaking the second-place A’s (81-56) a boost with a nail-biting, 8-7 victory Saturday night.Seattle will leave Oakland either a reasonable 3 1/2 games or a distant 5 1/2 games behind the A’s as they go head-to-head not just for second in the West but perhaps most important for the second AL wild-card berth.Article continues below ...The clubs also will meet three times in Seattle in the final week of the season, magnifying the need for the Mariners to stay at least within three games of the A’s.Hernandez (8-12, 5.49 ERA) hasn’t had his best season, but the Mariners way more often than not have been in good hands when the 14-year veteran has pitched in Oakland.Hernandez has faced the A’s 50 times in his career, starting on 49 of those occasions. He has gone 26-12 with a 2.71 ERA.The 26 wins are seven more than he has against any other team.The 32-year-old has been especially good in Oakland, where he’s 13-5 with a 2.89 ERA in 26 games, including 25 as a starter.Hernandez’s 13 wins in Oakland are the most by an A’s opponent in Oakland Coliseum history.He has faced the A’s four times already this season and lost three of them http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-jose-reyes-jersey , albeit by the low-scoring counts of 2-1, 4-3 and 3-2. The latter two games were in Oakland.Hernandez, the sixth-winningest active pitcher with 168 victories, will be opposed by another member of the exclusive 100-win club, A’s right-hander Edwin Jackson (4-3, 3.03), who owns 102 career wins.The 34-year-old hasn’t faced Seattle since 2013, but he dominated the Mariners when he did. Jackson has started four games in his career against the Mariners and won all four Wilmer Flores Jersey , compiling a 1.26 ERA in the process.Jackson has not gotten out of the fifth inning in either of his last two starts — home against Texas and at Houston — allowing seven runs (six earned) and 11 hits in nine innings.Neither team was particularly sharp in Saturday’s game.The A’s lent a helping hand to the Mariners in a three-run third inning when second baseman Jed Lowrie and Stephen Piscotty miscommunicated, allowing Denard Span’s pop fly to drop.Oakland still had a chance to get a forceout at second base on the play, but center fielder Ramon Laureano threw wildly to the plate, allowing a run to score and setting up the other two runs.Kyle Seager put the Mariners up 5-1 later in the inning with a single to right field on which Lowrie dropped a relay throw, allowing Span to score after he had initially held up at third.The A’s then caught a break in a four-run rally in the eighth when Span, playing left field, turned Marcus Semien’s two-run double into a three-run blow when he bobbled the ball.That got the A’s within one and gave them a chance to tie the game with Semien at second base, but Mariners closer Edwin Diaz struck out Matt Chapman to retain the 8-7 lead. ST. LOUIS (AP) Mike Shildt got a glimpse of the St. Louis Cardinals‘ future Wednesday night.The interim manager was plenty encouraged by what he saw in a 6-3 win over the Colorado Rockies.”That’s the blueprint of how you play the game http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-neil-walker-jersey ,” Shildt said. ”Every phase was executed (well) across the board.”Rookie outfielder Tyler O’Neill hit a tiebreaking pinch single in the sixth inning and five rookie relievers dominated over 6 1/3 innings to lift the Cardinals.”We’re playing the game the right way,” said Harrison Bader, who scored the go-ahead run on O’Neill’s single.Bader, also a rookie, had three hits and used his speed to leg out a double and set the stage for the winning tally.St. Louis starter Luke Weaver allowed two runs in 2 2/3 innings before handing off to the bullpen. Daniel Poncedeleon followed with 2 1/3 scoreless innings, and Austin Gomber, Dakota Hudson, Jordan Hicks and Mike Mayers closed it out. Gomber (1-0) got his first career victory with a scoreless inning. Mayers allowed a run in the ninth but struck out three.”I think we all showed we are ready Adrian Gonzalez Jersey ,” Poncedeleon said.Bader doubled with one out off Kyle Freeland (9-7) to start the go-ahead rally. O’Neill followed with a run-scoring single up the middle, his first pinch hit in nine attempts, to break the 2-all tie. O’Neill was recalled from Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday.”That was a big-time at-bat he took,” Shildt said. ”You saw him bear down and take a nice swing. It was good to see.”The relief corps allowed one run and two hits.”We just couldn’t solve their bullpen,” Rockies manager Bud Black said.Yadier Molina added a two-run double in the eighth to push the lead to 5-2. Marcell Ozuna followed with a run-scoring hit.The Rockies scored twice in the third, on hits by Trevor Story and Gerardo Parra.Paul DeJong cut the early 2-0 deficit in half with an RBI hit in the third. Poncedeleon brought in Yairo Munoz with a groundout to tie it in the fourth.Freeland gave up three runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five and walked three.”We just need to keep doing what we were doing,” Freeland said. ”Getting good starts out of starters, offense doing their thing.”St. Louis has won 17 of its last 21 at home against the Rockies.The 3-hour Jose Bautista Jersey , 59-minute game was the Cardinals’ longest nine-inning game of the season.”It was worth it,” Bader said.TRAINER’S ROOMRockies: INF DJ LeMahieu will come off the disabled list Thursday and is expected to play in the series finale. LeMahieu has been out since July 21 with a left oblique strain.Cardinals: INF Kolten Wong will make a rehab start with Class A Peoria on Thursday. He has been out since July 22 with left knee inflammation.UP NEXTRHP Antonio Senzatela (4-3, 5.01) will face RHP Miles Mikolas (11-3, 2.83) in the finale of the four-game set Thursday. Senzatela is 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA in two road starts this season. Mikolas has recorded 14 quality starts in 21 starts this season.—