Game Thread #148: Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners

Game two of this final regular-season series between the Athletics and Mariners kicks off at 6:10 PM Pacific Time tonight. Taking the hill for the Green and Gold is Sonny Gray, who brings a 13-8 record and 3.22 ERA into this contest. In three career starts at Safeco Field, Gray has conceded just a single earned run. While coming off a quality start against the Chicago White Sox on September 8, his last start against the Mariners on September 2 did not go well. He left that game charged with six runs in just five innings.

Now some good news:

Maybe the fact that 7 of 8 next games the A's are scheduled to face RHP may help

— Vince Cotroneo (@vincebaseball) September 13, 2014

The first of these "helpful" right-handed pitchers is tonight's Seattle starter, Felix Hernandez. There was a moment in the second half of August when people thought, "Maybe Hernandez gets tired toward the end of the year," when he managed a 5.09 ERA in three starts between August 16-29. And then he went to the Coliseum and got his mojo back with an eight-inning one-run victory.

Tonight will be Oakland's sixth game this season against Hernandez. The first five have have all been decided in favor of Seattle by one or two runs. The closest the A's came to victory was a 6-4 extra-inning loss on May 7, when Hernandez failed to strike anyone out and allowed 11 hits in 6⅓ innings. Oakland's last victory against King Felix was September 27, 2013, a meaningless Game 161 with then-Seattle manager Eric Wedge playing out the string and the Athletics trying to stay loose for the upcoming postseason.

For a meaningful game, you'll have to go back to September 7, 2012 in which the A's won 6-1.

Hey! Maybe there's something about September starts against Felix Hernandez.

No. No. He'll throw a perfect game. Keep expectations low.

No surprises on who is starting for the Athletics, unless you want to argue about Alberto Callaspo's relative success at slapping singles against Hernandez.

If there is a Mariners killer on the Athletics, it is Sonny Gray:

Statistics are courtesy of Baseball Reference.

Night Court

Game face on. T-shirt on. #Mariners fans, it's on tonight. #GoMariners #NightCourt pic.twitter.com/1Ph5wcP31K

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) September 13, 2014

The Mariners are of course celebrating the 80s NBC situation comedy Night Court, starring Harry Anderson as Judge Harry T. Stone and an ensemble cast that included John Larroquette as the prosecutor.

With a hat tip to Nathan Bishop over at Lookout Landing, here is the starring cast of the Mariners, set to the funky 80s stylings of Ernie Watts on saxophone:

Home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski

Mike Muchlinski was part of the new full-time hires prompted by the need for additional umpiring crews to support replay review in New York. According to Close Call Sports, Muchlinski had worked 570 MLB games as a fill-in umpire prior to his full-time assignment.

Muchlinski brings a 4.04 umpire ERA to tonight's game, favoring the hitter against the MLB ERA of 3.75.

Here's Muchlinski's strike zone in his August 31 game between RHP Ricky Nolasco and LHP Wei-Yin Chen:

Notable notables

Highlights from the Oakland Athletics Expanded Game Notes (PDF):

• In spite of it all, Oakland still has MLB's best record since 2012, sporting a 271-200 (.575) that is 3½ games better than the Washington Nationals (267-203 .568).
• The A's have committed 99 errors, second most in the American League behind Cleveland at 110.
• This day in 1953, Bob Trice becomes the first Afircan-American to appear in a major league game for the Athletics.
• Sonny Gray actually is 4-1 with a 2.39 ERA in six career starts, and the four wins are the most against any team in his career.
• Not in the notes, but according to Jayson Stark's "ode to the most unique baseball player who ever lived," Adam Dunn needs one more game with a walk, strikeout, and home run in the same game to pass Barry Bond and Babe Ruth to be alone in second place for most Three True Outcomes games. Dunn, Ruth, and Bonds have 125 of those. Mark McGwire holds the record with 133.
• Hitting "streaks": Billy Burns 1 game; Josh Donaldson 1; Nate Freiman 1; Sam Fuld 1; Craig Gentry 1; Jonny Gomes 1; Brandon Moss 1; Stephen Vogt 1. Oh my.

First pitch is at 6:10 PM!