Open Thread: Game 20 (Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners)

The Mariners are going to throw out a rookie starter tonight. His name is Michael Pineda, and with our luck (and offense), he'll continue the red-hot start to his pitching career. The A's will counter with yet-untested-in-2011 Tyson Ross, who is taking the place of the injured Dallas Braden. According to MLB.com, Tyson Ross is "excited" about the start. I hope he doesn't like his team to score runs. Or wins.

According to the ever-reliable Baseball Press, tonight's lineups are as follows:

1. Coco Crisp (S) CF 2. Daric Barton (L) 1B 3. David DeJesus (L) RF 4. Josh Willingham (R) LF 5. Hideki Matsui (L) DH 6. Kurt Suzuki (R) C 7. Mark Ellis (R) 2B 8. Kevin Kouzmanoff (R) 3B 9. Cliff Pennington (S) SS

1. Ichiro Suzuki (L) RF 2. Chone Figgins (S) 3B 3. Milton Bradley (S) LF 4. Jack Cust (L) DH 5. Adam Kennedy (L) 1B 6. Miguel Olivo (R) C 7. Ryan Langerhans (L) CF 8. Brendan Ryan (R) SS 9. Jack Wilson (R) 2B

These are the games that the A's absolutely have to win; with all apologies to the great Lookout Landing, Seattle is not a great team, and if the A's want to do any damage at all atop the American League West, they need to start winning division games. We welcome back Daric Barton and Hideki Matsui to the lineup as we get started tonight.

LET'S GO OAK-LAND!