"The A's have done their share of late-inning damage against teams this season.

But the tables were turned Tuesday night at Safeco Field, as former Athletic Milton Bradley crushed a three-run home run off Brad Ziegler to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the eighth inning and give the Seattle Mariners a 3-0 win.

The A's, whose 6-2 record entering the day tied Minnesota for best in the American League, came into Tuesday having scored an AL-leading 43 runs. Twenty-two of those, or 51 percent, were scored in the seventh inning or later.

But a night after shutting out Seattle on two hits, the A's mustered just three hits of their own as the Mariners tied the three-game series going into tonight's finale.

They can thank the switch-hitting Bradley, who made headlines over the weekend when he flipped off fans at Rangers Ballpark.

He came to bat in the eighth mired in a 2-for-25 funk. After Jose Lopez singled and Mike Sweeney walked, Bradley hit a towering homer to right field on a 2-0 pitch from Ziegler, sending a charge through the crowd of 18,043.

"He's not going to hit .045 (forever)," A's manager Bob Geren said. " ... Milton was in a hitter's count and got a pitch to hit."

All three of Bradley's hits this season have come against Oakland. Two have been homers."