SEATTLE -- All that Julio Rodríguez could do was quite literally tip his cap.

A 103.1 mph fly ball to the warning track on Saturday night off the bat looked like it was destined to do damage in the fourth inning of the Mariners¡¯ 8-1 loss to the A¡¯s. But Rodr¨ªguez instead fell victim to an over-the-shoulder catch by Lawrence Butler, after which he paused and gave a thumbs-up to Oakland¡¯s right fielder.

It was a good-faith gesture that was also an encapsulation of a frustrating night at the plate for the Mariners, who saw eight of their 11 hard-hit balls land into gloves instead of the bleachers or grass. Rodr¨ªguez also paced the game¡¯s exit velocity leaderboard with a 110.1 mph up-the-middle liner that, instead of scorching into center field, pummeled off pitcher Joey Estes¡¯ glove, then shoulder, and led to a putout.

¡°Everybody has been putting in a lot of good at-bats,¡± Rodr¨ªguez said. ¡°Everybody's swinging the right pitches. Everybody is just hitting the ball hard. I feel like that's a really good positive night -- obviously it doesn't reflect on the scoreboard.¡±

Seattle finished with just three hits, but their eight hard-hit outs were one shy of their season-high.

A few other notable knocks that were for naught:

• Dylan Moore nearly hit a pull-side homer for the second straight night, but his 99.2 mph, 350-foot fly ball landed just short of the left-field fence in the sixth. Had it gone an extra foot or two, the Mariners would¡¯ve tied the game at 2.
• Mitch Garver saw a 100.6 mph would-be double down the left-field line snowconed in the fifth by third baseman Brett Harris, who dove to his left then rolled over while maintaining control of the ball, which had a .660 expected batting average. Had it landed, Garver would¡¯ve scored on the ensuing double by Jorge Polanco, tying the game at 2-2.

• Luke Raley had a 97.1 mph screamer snagged by first baseman Tyler Soderstrom on a Spiderman-like leap in the third.
• Polanco hit a 101.7 mph flyout to Butler at the warning track to lead off the eighth, though it was immediately after Gabe Speier surrendered a bases-clearing double to Max Schuemann that put the game out of reach.

¡°[Estes] was in the zone and we were aggressive early,¡± Raley said. ¡°He didn't even throw that many pitches. But I mean, we hit some balls well, and nothing was falling.¡±

Aside from Polanco¡¯s 105.8 mph double, Seattle¡¯s only hard-hit ball that dropped was Josh Rojas¡¯ 97.6 mph single in the sixth and Cal Raleigh¡¯s 100.4 mph solo homer in the second, which represented its only run.

It was the 10th homer of the year for ¡°Big Dumper,¡± who has now gone yard four times since last Sunday, when he hit a dramatic, go-ahead blast in a 5-4 win in Houston.

But there wasn¡¯t much solace for the poor-luck superlatives in front of a ticketed 32,398 at T-Mobile Park -- especially given that Oakland played a completely clean game, and that the Mariners paid for a few costly miscues.

The most dramatic was when Rodr¨ªguez was the third out in the sixth when attempting his 10th stolen base while representing the tying run Sliding feet-first -- as he has for most of the past two years after head-first slides led to injuries -- Rodr¨ªguez came off the bag and was tagged out by former Mariner Abraham Toro to halt a potential rally while the game was within reach.

¡°He just kind of kept the tag on it,¡± Rodr¨ªguez said. ¡°I've got to slow down a little bit. ... Because of my body, I just want to stay feet-first and let my bottom half take the burden off the slide.¡±

Earlier, in the third, a chopping grounder from Brett Harris scooted past Rojas for a single instead of the first out. Harris went on to score the go-ahead run on a two-out knock from Toro off Bryce Miller, whose other run manifested from a leadoff walk to Butler.

Other than that two-spot, Miller put up zeros with nine strikeouts over six innings.

The dagger of the night was a wild pitch by Eduard Bazardo that scored a runner from third base and was immediately followed by a two-run homer from JJ Bleday that created a seven-run deficit.