Seattle’s long run against division rivals ends this week with a three-game set against the Athletics, a series that comes after the Mariners beat the Rangers last weekend and improved their chance to win the season series and the tiebreaker later in the year.
The Mariners and Athletics meet with each club carrying a different kind of momentum. Seattle is trying to finish a demanding stretch against American League West opponents with another clean result, while Oakland comes in after dropping a three-game set against the White Sox last weekend and after a few weeks earlier in the season when it won consecutive series against the Astros, Yankees and Mets.
The weight of the matchup is not hard to find. The Athletics are 19th in baseball with 4.14 runs scored per game and have the fifth-highest strikeout rate in the sport right now, a combination that has made their offense look up and down early in the season. Shea Langeliers has provided one of the bright spots with six home runs and a 163 wRC+, but the rest of the lineup has been harder to trust. Nick Kurtz has two home runs this season, Tyler Soderstrom has an 87 wRC+, Jacob Wilson has a 68 wRC+ and Lawrence Butler has a 58 wRC+.
That puts pressure on Oakland’s pitching plan in a series that can swing on one or two innings. J.T. Ginn has spent the last few seasons bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen, and his sinker-slider combination can generate a lot of groundballs, with a changeup available when he needs a whiff. Jacob Lopez offers a different look. He had a stretch of 13 starts last summer in which he posted a 2.64 ERA and a 3.08 FIP, but he also allowed nine runs against the Mariners on August 24 and went on the injured list with an elbow strain on August 25. His fastball barely averages 90 mph, which leaves little margin if his command slips.
Oakland also added another veteran arm in February when it signed Aaron Civale, now pitching for his sixth team in four years. He is a back-end starter with a deep repertoire, the kind of pitcher who can keep a game moving if Seattle does not turn its recent division work into early offense. The series sits inside a longer stretch of games against rivals, and Seattle’s win over Texas may end up mattering later when the season series and tiebreaker come into focus.
For the Athletics, this series is a chance to show that the offense can do more than flash for a week at a time. For the Mariners, it is a chance to leave a hard stretch of division games with the kind of result that could matter well beyond this week.
