OAKLAND -- The first two pitches from George Kirby Wednesday night evoked a metaphorical combination of “oh no” and “here we go again,” as the Mariners trailed by one run immediately via two hard-hit knocks against Seattle’s extremely competitive starter.

Kirby was coming off his most challenging month of the season, one that saw him tumble out of Cy Young Award consideration. And the Mariners, overall, have seen their playoff hopes reach life support, entering the day below .500 for the first time since April 20.

The stage was setting up for another potentially long and frustrating night -- yet it wound up being anything but.

Kirby settled in to retire his next 11 en route to his 17th quality start, surrendering only one run the rest of the way and working out of damage-looming jams in the fifth and sixth innings. Seattle’s bats, meanwhile, backed him with their most runaway performance in years, en route to a 16-3 victory over the A’s at the Coliseum that snapped a four-game losing streak.

Seattle hadn’t scored that many runs in a game since June 2, 2016, at San Diego, a night in which it set a franchise record by coming back after trailing by 10.

The Mariners (70-70) also made up one game on the first-place Astros, who lost in Cincinnati, making Wednesday just the sixth day in 16 tries since the All-Star break in which Seattle won when Houston lost (excluding head-to-head matchups).

The uphill climb to October might be as tall as the Mt. Davis bleachers that sit high above the soon-to-be-shuttered Coliseum, but for at least one night, those ambitions weren’t as bleak as in what’s easily been their most trying stretch of the season.

“Continuing that mentality of when we score first, we need to continue to put the pedal down and continue to press and score runs in those middle innings,” said Mitch Garver, who had a season-high four RBIs, “because those are kind of the separators in the games versus getting walked off.”

Garver put the Mariners on the board with a two-run, 99.8 mph double in the second inning that gave Kirby immediate run support -- and a lead that the Mariners wouldn’t relinquish. It was also a microcosmic moment to their output with two strikes, which for anyone following this team, knows its a well-chronicled issue.

Seattle had 21 plate appearances in two-strike counts on Wednesday and wound up K’ing six times -- a low they’ve now reached only six times since the All-Star break. But they also had five hits, three walks, one sacrifice fly, one hit-by-pitch and seven RBIs in those sequences.

They also kept the pressure on Oakland until the very end -- scoring seven runs in the seventh and four in the eighth -- less than 24 hours after Cal Raleigh preached the importance of “playing all nine.” But it was their fourth-inning rally that perhaps stood out more, when they clung to a one-run lead.

Garver was front-and-center then, too, as part of four consecutive hits with two outs that pushed Seattle to its nearly unbeatable threshold of five runs. The Mariners advanced to 45-4 when plating that many, extending their MLB-best record in such games.

“I was more impressed with how the at-bats continued throughout the seventh through the ninth,” Garver said. “Because a lot of times when you get up by eight, 10 runs, you kind of give away at-bats, but we continued to press on and score a few more.”

The seventh presented a more “chaos ball” brand of play, with Julio Rodríguez plating Dylan Moore on a swinging bunt, after three hard-hit outs to right field earlier, and Randy Arozarena following with a check-swing that yielded a down-the-line double to right that added two more. But Luis Urías was the MVP of that frame, crushing a 399-foot leadoff homer then drawing a bases-loaded walk with two outs.

Urías is making the most of his opportunity since being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma as part of rosters expanding in September, much like Garver.

But Kirby’s efforts were just as vital -- and following a 6.84 ERA in five August starts, he badly wants to finish the season strong, too. Kirby had nine strikeouts and saw a 1.2 mph jump on both his fastballs, but he said a mental adjustment was more key to his turnaround.

“Just ripping it,” Kirby said. “Trusting my stuff, and yeah, I think I was just thinking too much the last couple weeks.”