Game #49: Mariners at A’s

The A’s host the M’s tonight in game two of the three-game series. The A’s come into tonight’s game looking to pick back up the momentum from their recent 7-3 road trip after losing in extra innings to the Mariners last night. (It was an overall bad night at 7000 Coliseum Way)

The A’s send Right-hander, Daniel Gossett to the mound tonight, calling him up from Nashville earlier in the day to take the place of injured starter, Andrew Triggs. Right-handed reliever Wilmer Font (14.85 ERA in 4 games) was designated for assignment to make room on the 25 man roster.

*Khris Davis (groin strain) was also placed on the 10 Day DL this afternoon and Franklin Barreto was called up to take his place on the roster.

Gossett opened the year as the A’s 5th starter but quickly earned a ticket down to Nashville after posting an 11.05 ERA in two April starts. To his credit, Gossett used the time down in Triple AAA to reboot after his rough start, dominating the Pacific Coast League with a 1.63 ERA across 38 2/3 innings, racking up 42 strikeouts and going 4-0 in seven games (five starts).

Tonight, the former team captain of the Clemson Tigers baseball team gets a second chance to stick in the big leagues facing a Mariners offense that is low on firepower (Robinson Cano – Out with a Broken Wrist; Dee Gordon – Out with a Broken Toe; Nelson Cruz - struggling with an elbow contusion; Jean Segura - banged up shoulder; Mitch Haniger – Sore Wrist). Cruz and Segura will play tonight despite their injuries, Haniger will not and Cano and Gordon are on the disabled list. Even with a banged up team the Mariners are currently riding a 4 game win streak and find themselves just two games out of first place in the A.L. West and 3.5 games ahead of the A’s.

The Mariners counter Gossett with lefthander, Marco Gonzales in his first season with Seattle after coming up in the Cardinals organization. The A’s knocked Gonzales for 4 runs on 5 hits in 3 ¹⁄₃ innings up in Seattle back in April. Matt Chapman and Marcus Semien hit doubles and Mark “The Mask” Cahna, Stephen Piscotty and Jed Lowrie added RBI singles.

Here are tonight’s line-ups from a chilly Oakland Coliseum (Gametime Temp: 58 F; Wind: 14 mph)

With a rejuvenated Daniel Gossett and an offense that comes in confident against Marco Gonzales, all signs point to a good evening at the ballpark for the boys in green and gold, hopefully ending in a Kool & the Gang, “Celebration!” By the way, did you know “Celebration” is in the key of C♯ in common time and was written as a collaboration by the whole band? The song moves at a tempo of 123 beats per minute. The group’s vocals span from D♭4 to A♭5. “Celebration” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 7, 1981, and held that position for two weeks before being ousted by Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”.

As Jules from Pulp Fiction once said, “Hey, that’s Kool and the Gang.”