The last time Don Wakamatsu and his band of merry Mariners visited Oakland, they made a quite a mess of the place. But like the good citizens they are, they were sure to sweep up before they left.
Here's hoping they leave the brooms behind this time.
Seattle (21-24) has cooled off considerably since starting the season 15-10, with exactly a third of those wins coming at the hands of our Oakland A's, who are paying dearly for thoroughly dominating the Mariners in 2006. That year the A's took 17 out of 19 from Seattle, en route to their last AL West crown; since then the M's have won 28 of 44 between the two clubs.
Today's pitching matchup features a pair of youngsters coming off solid starts their last time around.
The A's send southpaw Brett Anderson, who notched his first big-league win last Wednesday with six innings of four-hit ball. The 21-year old allowed four runs, only two earned, walked none, and struck out five. Despite a 1-4 mark and a 5.54 ERA, Anderson has earned high praise from his bosses:
"I don't know that I've seen a whole lot of downs," said pitching coach Curt Young. "Unless we're talking about the blister. You see him; the stuff is there. He's had a handful of rough innings and the blister, so the ERA isn't there, but you watch him pitch and you know he's a special talent."For the Mariners it's right-hander Chris Jakubauskas, who held the Angels scoreless on just two hits through six innings on May 20 in a 1-0 victory. Runs have been hard to come by for Seattle with just ten runs in it last five games, half of those during yesterday's 5-4 victory against that team from across the Bay:
"You don't fully kick it out of your mind. You know it's there. You're fully aware when the offense isn't clicking,'' said Jakubauskas on the struggling Mariners' offense. "But the biggest thing for me, I'm looking at the guy I'm throwing against. If he's putting up a lot of zeros, you have to match him zero for zero until your offense can explode."The Mariners probably won't get any get-well-soon cards for their offensive woes from the A's, who have their own issues at the plate. Neither team ranks higher than 12th (out of 14 American League clubs) in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, and runs scored (see chart). All of which means we're probably in for a slugfest this afternoon.
Category | A's | M's |
BA | 12th | 13th |
OBP | 12th | 14th |
SLG | 14th | 13th |
OPB | 14th | 13th |
Runs | 12th | 13th |
HR | 14th | 11th |
Total Bases | 14th | 12th |
Today's starting lineups:
