Game Thread #157: A’s vs. Mariners

It’s been a long season and a somehow even longer week. We’ve gotten more press than anytime in the last few years, though not due to our incredible selection of Matts. Bruce Maxwell took a stand by not standing, and I think I got brain poisoning from reading the comments on ESPN’s various articles about the situation - I don’t know what I expected. Dead_dove.jpg.

Anyway, my time as the Tuesday game recapper is drawing to a close. Let’s finish things up with a win, shall we?

Daniel Mengden takes the mound for Oakland tonight, coming off two of the best starts of his short career. After throwing a complete game shutout in Philadelphia, Mengden came back with a scoreless 7 innings against Detroit. These two fantastic starts harken back to his first few appearances in the major leagues, when he seemed absolutely unstoppable until falling apart sometime around game #5 or #6. The mustachioed righty has been throwing his wide arsenal of pitches effectively, keeping opposing hitters off-balance as they have to decide which of his multiple fastballs and breaking balls to expect. 16 consecutive scoreless innings so far, and hopefully he can keep the streak going.

The Mariners, on the other hand, are sending lefty James Paxton to the mount to cap off their annual end-of-season deflation. Paxton has had an excellent year and is looking to solidify his credentials with another solid start since returning from the DL. The A’s are going with their standard lefty lineup, which unfortunately means only one Matt and 0 Bruces.

The Mariners are no longer in contention, which means this is meaningless baseball for both sides. We got to crush the Mariners’ dreams in the second to last game of the season last year, so I suppose it was too much to hope we would get to play spoiler for them again. They’re my least-hated AL West Rival (who’s yours?), but I will never not love the proverbial eating of the heart.

Let’s keep our hot September going!

Game time is 7:05 PT. Go A’s!