Game two of the series in Seattle pits Brett Anderson against Ryan Rowland-Smith. The Mariners will again be without Ichiro Suzuki, nursing a calf injury, but he is expected back in the lineup tomorrow. Rajai Davis returns to center field for the A's, thereby allowing them to avoid having Jack Cust wearing anything more than batting gloves.
Anderson has both a win and a loss against Seattle this year, though this will be his first time pitching in Safeco Field. His initial start was also his Major League debut, not a particularly good outing, though his second one about a month and a half later was much better. Added up, he's allowed 6 ER in 12 IP. He's coming off his first loss since July 24 in New York, this one also to the Yankees. If you look at it this way, Anderson hasn't lost to a non-Yankees team since a June 14 defeat against San Francisco and he hasn't been beaten by another AL team since June 9 against Minnesota.
As for Rowland-Smith, he was opposite Anderson in that first start back on April 10 but only lasted 3 1/3 innings because of ineffectiveness, throwing 82 pitches and allowing a pair of unearned runs. He didn't pitch again in the Majors until late July but the Australian did log ten starts with Triple-A Tacoma in between. He's lost his last two starts to the Yankees and Tigers.
The A's look to continue reversing a negative trend of losses against their division rivals. Last night's defeat dropped them to 12-19 against the AL West on the season, a mark they'd actually improved upon by taking three of four the last time Texas visited the Coliseum three weeks ago. They're just 3-7 against Seattle. The forecast calls for nice weather in the Pacific Northwest but even if it wasn't it wouldn't be a problem. Why?
Safeco is "roofy."
One thing I don't understand is why Nomar Garciaparra is in to face the lefty instead of Daric Barton or Tommy Everidge. Maybe Bob Geren wants to give Garciaparra a start once in a while but it seems to me it'd be more important that Barton or Everidge get those ABs, especially someone like Barton against a lefty (he's only had 9 PA against them this season, but he's drawn three walks while going 1-for-6, the hit a double). Seriously, Bob, what's the point? What's more important right now? Nomar has no future here.
