Going For the Sweep

The Seattle Mariners will be facing the Athletics in the final game of this series in Oakland Thursday afternoon. Felix Hernandez will be going for the Mariners. He has had a lot of success against the A’s. He will have to see what he can do since he hasn’t done well in last couple outings. The Mariners offense in what state it is right now might not score a lot of runs today. Of course Felix is used to the Mariners not scoring a lot of runs when he is on the mound.

Marcus Semien the shortstop of the A’s has had the most success against Felix for those who have had at least thirty at bats. He is batting .333 and includes four home runs. The next in line is Jed Lowrie who has had the most at bats with fifty-three and he is batting .245 against Felix with three home runs. Matt Joyce is the only other one in their lineup that has more than thirty at bats and he is batting .125. Not much of a sample size for the rest of the A’s lineup. Felix success against the A’s in Oakland hopefully will come to light.

In a surprise move the A’s Josh Lucas  will be making his first start in the major leagues. He was recalled last Friday May 18 and has pitched in relief a couple of games. Hard to know at this point how the Mariners will do against him.

Wednesday night Marco Gonzales probably pitched his best game against the A’s going seven innings giving up two hits, walked two batters and striking out six without allowing a run in a 1-0 victory. This I believe is the first time that Gonzales has gone seven innings and he threw one hundred and two pitches. The duo of Juan Nicasio who has struggled in May pitched the eighth inning giving up one hit however struck out a batter without walking any one. Edwin Diaz got his seventh save of the season striking out all three batters that he faced in the ninth inning. At this rate he should go way over forty saves for the season and in July be on the all-star team.

John Andreoli made his major league debut for the Mariners that including his first hit and made an outstanding catch in the outfield. He played right field in place of Mitch Haniger who is day to day after getting hit in the right wrist on Tuesday. The Mariners sent pitcher Dan Altavilla to Tacoma to make room for Andreoli. At this point the only other choice in the outfield was utility player Andrew Romine.

Guillermo Heredia who continues to do well since being put into the starting lineup with the injury then suspension of Robinson Cano scored the only run of the game after hitting a double and then Seager hit a ball to shortstop Semien who was playing in however received an error. The Mariners are now ten games above five hundred with a record of 29-19 so with the sweep the Mariners would record their thirtieth win of the series. The Mariners haven’t quite played a third of the season which puts them on pace to go over ninety wins for the season and should get a wild card birth.  

Friday the Mariners will come home to face the Minnesota Twins over the weekend. James Paxton who has had an outstanding May including a no-hitter will go for the Mariners. The Mariners will finish off May at home against the Texas Rangers in four games. Go M’s.

In other news the Mariners have agreed on a new lease at Safeco Field for the next twenty-five years plus options for longer. So the Mariners will be going nowhere for now which is great news.