Ellis, Cust and Carter homer as A’s beat Mariners 5-3 to hand Seattle 100th loss

Ellis, Cust go back-to-back, A’s beat Seattle 5-3

SEATTLE — Mark Ellis and Jack Cust hit back-to-back homers to lead the Oakland Athletics over Seattle 5-3 on Saturday night, handing the Mariners their 100th loss of the season.

Chris Carter also connected for the A’s, who have outhomered the Mariners 7-1 in the first three games of the four-game set. Both teams entered the series with a major league-low 100 homers.

The Mariners have lost 100 games two of the last three seasons and five times in their 34-year history.

Brett Anderson (7-6) earned his fourth win in his last six starts. He allowed eight hits and two runs with six strikeouts and one walk in seven innings. He beat the Mariners for the third time.

Carter hit a two-run homer in the fifth to put the A’s up 4-1.

Ellis and Cust hit consecutive solo homers in the fourth to give the A’s a 2-0 lead after David Pauley had retired his first 11 batters.

The homer by Cust glanced off the glove of left fielder Michael Saunders and off the top of the wall.

Pauley (4-9) gave up all three homers. He allowed four hits and four runs in seven innings.

Seattle’s Justin Smoak had two doubles and an RBI to extend his career-high hitting streak to nine games.

Greg Halman hit a run-scoring infield single in the sixth off Anderson to cut the lead to 4-2.

Saunders hit a solo homer in the ninth off Craig Breslow to make it 5-3. Breslow earned his fourth save when he retired Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins with a runner on.

Josh Wilson led off the seventh with a double, but Anderson retired the next three batters to end the threat.

Anderson entered 2-1 with a 0.68 ERA in four starts this season against the Mariners.

NOTES: Seattle will start Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-10) on Sunday after deciding Thursday to shut down Felix Hernandez for the year. … Seattle center fielder Franklin Gutierrez, who was the DH, has yet to commit an error this season. The center fielder will set a major league record with most chances (415) in a season without an error if he plays errorless ball Sunday. Curt Flood has the record of 396 set in 1966 with St. Louis. … Oakland needs a win Sunday to avoid a fourth consecutive losing season. … Oakland’s Rajai Davis stole two bases to give him 50 for the season, nine more than his previous career high set last year.