Mariners hold off A’s to stay in playoff chase

SEATTLE — The Mariners’ postseason hopes might be flickering, but Mike Zunino isn’t ready to turn out the lights just yet.

Zunino’s home run leading off the seventh lifted Seattle to a 3-2 victory over the A’s in Thursday’s series opener at Safeco Field and keeps the Mariners two games back of the Orioles and Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card chase with three games remaining.

“For us it’s like the playoffs started a few weeks ago, knowing how close we are,” Zunino said. “So it’s nice, the atmosphere has been great here, the team’s been playing well, and we can only do so much as a team and let everything fall into place.”

Zunino’s go-ahead blast was his 12th of the season and Ketel Marte added an RBI single in the eighth as Seattle handed Oakland its ninth loss in the past 10 games. The A’s scored a run on three singles in the ninth and had runners on first and third before 22-year-old closer Edwin Diaz slammed the door for his 18th save.

“It came down to situational at-bats,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.

The Mariners have won 15 of their past 21 to bump themselves up to a season-best 11 games over .500 at 85-74, but Baltimore’s 4-0 victory over Toronto leaves them little wiggle room heading into the season’s closing weekend.

If the Mariners win their final three, they’ll need either the Orioles or Blue Jays to lose two-of-three and have the Tigers lose at least once to force a tiebreaker for the final Wild Card spot. If they go 2-1 in their final three, they’d need Toronto or Baltimore to lose all three and have the Tigers lose twice.

“We live another day,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais. “This was a really gutsy performance by all our guys.”

Ariel Miranda allowed just four hits over 5 1/3 innings for Seattle, but left with a no-decision after A’s rookie second baseman Chad Pinder tied the game at 1 with a leadoff homer in the sixth. Miranda closed out his rookie season with a 5-2 record and 3.88 ERA after being acquired at the Trade Deadline from the Orioles for Wade Miley.

Kendall Graveman dueled Miranda to a draw as the A’s right-hander gave up seven hits and one run over 5 2/3 innings to close his campaign at 10-11 with a 4.11 ERA.

“They stack a lot of lefties in on you and you can kind of get in the pattern of …

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