Thursday's game began with a ball that bounced through the legs of Alberto Callaspo, who made his debut at first base, and ended with a ball that sailed over the right-field wall, Coco Crisp's first career walk-off home run.

Crisp opened the 12th inning with his 109th career homer, and the A's beat the Mariners 3-2 before a Coliseum crowd of 11,236, some of whom stuck around to watch Crisp connect on Hector Noesi's second pitch.

Josh Reddick performed his traditional act, sticking a pie in Crisp's face and drenching him with ice water after the 4-hour, 2-minute game, which followed Wednesday's doubleheader.

"To be able to put that in my bag, it's a good feeling. All these years, I've never done that," said Crisp, 34. "If I had that on my mind, it might not have turned out that way. I was just going up there trying to swing as hard as I could. I guess the premise of that is to hopefully catch it and hit a home run, but it was just letting it fly."

Jesse Chavez pitched six innings, giving up both runs (one unearned), and Fernando Abad, Sean Doolittle, Luke Gregerson and winner Drew Pomeranz combined for six scoreless innings in relief.

Yoenis Céspedes tied it 2-2 with an eighth-inning triple, and Doolittle was thrust into a prime-time role with struggling Jim Johnson resting. Doolittle retired six of seven batters, capped by a Robinson Cano strikeout.

Callaspo's first-inning blunder brought back memories of the "Moneyball" scene in which A's general manager Billy Beane and infield coach Ron Washington visit Scott Hatteberg's house.

To modernize the scene, let's replace Hatteberg with Callaspo: Beane wants Callaspo to be his first baseman, and Callaspo points out he had never played first base.

Beane: "It's not that hard, Alberto. Tell him, Wash."

Washington: "It's incredibly hard."

Yes it is, and Callaspo learned in a hurry, letting a routine grounder by the game's first batter, Abraham Almonte, go through his legs.

Second baseman Nick Punto picked up the ball and made a throwing error, and Almonte reached second. He advanced to third on a flyball and scored on Cano's groundout.

Both teams scored in the fifth inning, the A's answering Seattle's rally with a run on a play that was reviewed.

One pitch after everyone in the stadium thought Punto struck out (except umpire Sean Barber), Punto singled. Sam Fuld followed with a liner past a diving Almonte in center field. Third base-coach Mike Gallego sent the speedy Fuld home, but Cano's relay throw beat Fuld.

Barber called him out, and Melvin rushed to the plate. He didn't challenge the play but suggested catcher Mike Zunino had blocked the plate, violating the no-collision rule. Because phones apparently were down, umpires went indoors to speak with the New York command center. The call was upheld.
