OAKLAND -- JP Sears was in grave danger of letting Thursday’s start get out of hand early.

The Mariners were threatening to put up a crooked number on Sears by loading the bases with no outs in the third inning and the top of their lineup coming up. After Dylan Moore’s sacrifice fly with one out plated Seattle’s first run, the stage was set for Julio Rodríguez -- who less than 24 hours earlier became just the second player in MLB to take A’s flamethrowing closer Mason Miller deep this season -- to potentially deliver a major blow.

Sears began the showdown with a less-than-ideal 3-0 count to Rodríguez before engaging in a battle that saw the Mariners' slugger foul off four of the next five pitches. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Sears got Rodríguez to chase a 3-2 changeup outside the zone for a weak groundout to limit the damage in the inning to a run.

“That was probably the definition of [my] outing,” Sears said. “That at-bat was the crucial out. … A big swing there from him would have been a completely different game. He’s obviously a really good hitter, as we saw last night and from just seeing him so much. It was huge to get that out there.”

From there, Seattle would only score once more against Sears on Mitch Garver’s RBI single in the fourth. The left-hander finished allowing just two runs on three hits and two walks with eight strikeouts across six innings, lowering his ERA to 3.93 as he continues to be Oakland’s most consistent member of a rotation that has been riddled with injuries. But the quality outing resulted in defeat as the A’s dropped the series finale, 3-0, losing two of three to the Mariners.

When Ross Stripling landed on the injured list on May 25 to make it four of five members from Oakland’s Opening Day rotation on the IL, there was major concern as to how the A’s would piece together a staff going forward.

Rotation fill-ins Mitch Spence, Joey Estes, Luis Medina and Hogan Harris have stepped up by consistently keeping the club competitive in games. Including Sears’ outing on Thursday, the combined 2.92 ERA by A’s starting pitchers since May 25 ranks fourth lowest in the American League behind only the Mariners, Rangers and Yankees.

“It’s been a good run,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “We have definitely pitched. … Generally, you get good pitching and you win games. We’ve had good starting pitching for the last 10 or so outings and haven’t really capitalized on it.”

Despite the strong pitching, the A’s are just 4-7 over that 11-game stretch. The lack of wins is a product of an offense that has been held to three runs or fewer in nine of those 11 games. On Thursday, Oakland was dominated by Alameda native Bryan Woo through six scoreless innings. The struggles continued against the bullpen, as Mariners relievers combined for a perfect final three innings, capping a day when Seattle pitchers combined to retire 24 of their final 25 batters faced.

Woo has been a particularly difficult task for the A’s to solve. The right-hander has yet to allow a run against Oakland in 21 1/3 innings against his hometown team.

“Their starting pitching has really had success against us,” Kotsay said. “We need to figure this out. As a club, we haven’t been able to get to their starters. Their starters have gone six-plus against us for the majority of these losses. It’s something we need to do a better game plan of from a hitting standpoint to try to make adjustments against these starters.”

When looking at the big picture for this rebuilding A’s club, the overall season remains an improvement from the past two years. They sit at 25 wins, a mark they did not reach last season until July 5 before finishing with a record of 50-112. Still, with how the pitching is currently going, there is a sense that the A's are leaving potential wins on the table due to lack of run support, something they will look to correct as they welcome the Blue Jays for a three-game series starting on Friday.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” Kotsay said. “Offensively, we haven’t taken advantage of [our pitching]. We’re better than we were today.”