Casey Kotchman drove in four runs, two on a tiebreaking two-out single to center in the ninth, to lift the Seattle Mariners to a 5-3 victory over the host Oakland Athletics on Monday night.

Seattle’s ninth inning was extended on a two-out throwing error by new Oakland third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff just prior to Kotchman’s single off A’s reliever Andrew Bailey.

David Aardsma pitched a scoreless ninth to record the save.

Seattle staked ace Felix Hernandez to an early 3-0 lead. Kotchman doubled in Chone Figgins in the first; Rob Johnson homered to left center in the second, and the third run was plated on Kotchman’s third-inning sacrifice fly.

Oakland scored in the sixth on Ryan Sweeney’s RBI-single and tied the game in the seventh on run-scoring singles by Cliff Pennington and Rajai Davis.

Hernandez allowed just three hits but walked six in 6 2/3innngs. He was pulled with two outs in the seventh after issuing back-to-back walks to Mark Ellis and Travis Buck. Reliever Sean White allowed the two singles that knotted the score at 3.

Ben Sheets pitched five innings in his Oakland debut, allowing three runs (two earned) and four hits. Sheets missed the entire 2009 campaign after elbow surgery.