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Good news! The A's are .500 this half of the season. Bad news, the A's are not .500 on the season as a whole. As disappointing as this season has been, you can't help but feel for Mariner fans. Following 13 consecutive postseasonless years, the Mariner's looked primed to take the division in 2015. On top of that, 2014 ended with the Mariners missing a potential playoff birth by a single game on the last day of the season. With a team mixed of homegrown products and big free agent signings, it finally looked like the Mariner's time. But nah. The Mariners are just 1.5 games ahead of the A's in the standings. By the way, I don't know who does scheduling for MLB, but the Mariners have played 3 fewer games than your A's. Get it together.
Roenis Elias takes the hill for the Mariners, and disappointingly, he is not a character from the movie Gladiator. Even more disappointing, he's left handed, which means potentially tough sledding for sinistrophobic A's. You're welcome, SAT takers of AN.
I gotta say, the A's LHH lineup really doesn't look bad. I have no clue why they can't hit lefties, but they really can't. I anticipate in about a year, Eno Sarris will write an article about how the moonlight reflects off Suite 330 in right center, causing a .73 centimeter alteration in right handed hitter's sight, only against left handers. Or something like that.
Scott Kazmir takes the hill for the A's. Let's make a big effort to appreciate Kaz, as every start with the A's seems like it could be his last. The dude was a great signing, staying healthy for most of his time here and outperforming all of our expectations, second half of 2014 aside. He's been nails this year, and while I think a trade is a righteous inevitability, I will be sad to see him go.
All of that can be prevented of course, if the A's reel off 15 straight wins. So let's do that.
Today's Lineups
