Big series set to begin in Sacramento
The A’s are back home and are set to welcome a division rival to Sacramento for the first time. The Seattle Mariners will come to Sutter Health Park for the first time to begin what should be a critical series for both of these upstart young squads.
Seattle sits atop the division entering this series with a record of 20-13. They’ve overcome a rough first week of the season and have been one of the hotter teams in the league since as they’ve gone 17-6 over their past 23 games. Seattle can attribute a lot of their early success to a starting staff that has been one of the best in the entire sport through the first month-plus of the season. Two of their starters have sub-3 ERA’s, two have sub-4 marks, and their first starter has been much better than his bottom line numbers suggest after one rough start. Their bullpen, led by closer Andres Munoz (12 saves), has been roughly above-average as they have a 3.66 ERA as a group. The bats will have themselves a challenge for the next few days.
Their offense has been led by catcher Cal Raleigh, who currently leads all of baseball in home runs with 12. As a team they are currently fourth in all of baseball in home runs and that’s despite a slow star from center fielder Julio Rodriguez. For a team that didn’t add anything to their offense over the offseason they’ve been an overall solid group with contributions from JP Crawford, Randy Arozarena, Jorge Polanco and Dylan Moore.
Monday night’s contest will see Athletics right-hander Luis Severino take the ball for his seventh start of the year. He’s been on a roll over his past four starts as he’s tossed 24 2⁄3 innings and allowed just six runs, dropping his ERA from 4.01 to a much better 3.30 mark on the season. He pitched six shutout innings against these Mariners on Opening Day and the A’s will be hoping he can replicate that to open the series.
Facing Severino for Seattle will be righty Bryce Miller. Pitching in his third season as a big league starter Miller has been hot and cold, either allowing three or more runs a start or one or two runs to cross home plate. He’s coming off of five shutout innings last time on the mound so if he follows his own pattern he’s due to give up a few runs to the A’s tonight. He’s sporting a 3.52 ERA over six starts this season as he prepares to make his first start at Sutter Health Park.
The second game of the series on Tuesday evening is scheduled to be a matchup between A’s lefty Jeffrey Springs and M’s righty Emerson Hancock. The 32-year-old Springs finally put together a quality appearance last time out, pitching six shutout frames against the Texas Rangers while allowing just two base runners. That was arguably his best start of the season, an encouraging sign for the veteran after struggling 4.98 ERA up to this point. He’ll look to build off that start tomorrow against the Mariners, who he has already faced once this season to great results (6IP, 3 H, 0 ER).
Hancock on the other hand started the season in the Seattle rotation but got rocked for six earned runs in his first outing of the season. That earned him a demotion to Triple-A for a bit but he quickly earned his way back to Seattle. Since being recalled he’s looked much more like a former 1st-round pick and that 6.62 season ERA he has right now doesn’t tell how well he’s pitching as he enters this series.
Wrapping up the series on Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners will send their third straight right-hander to the mound in Bryan Woo. The 25-year-old, like Miller and Hancock, is also in his third season as a starting pitcher for the Mariners and has been arguably Seattle’s best starting pitcher this season. He hasn’t pitched less than six full innings in any of his six starts and has only given up four runs once. On the year he’s sporting a 2.58 ERA, which leads the team. Not an easy matchup for the Athletics.
The Athletics technically don’t have a scheduled starter as of this posting but all signs point to right-handed rookie Gunnar Hoglund getting the nod for his second career start. The rookie made his big league debut last week and looked fantastic, shutting down the Miami Marlins for six innings of one-run ball and collecting seven strikeouts versus no walks allowed. That continued a strong season to date for Hoglund after he got off to a good start in Triple-A. The former 1st-rounder can continue to solidify his grasp on the fifth starter’s spot with another quality outing to finish the series on Wednesday afternoon.