A pair of AL West rivals continue a weekend series on the diamond out on the west coast looking to put one in the win column. The Seattle Mariners are on the road as they play the middle game of a three-game series with the Oakland A’s Saturday night. Seattle swept the Angels at home in their most recent series, winning 11-7 at home Wednesday in their previous game. Oakland split a four-game series with Texas on the road, losing the finale of the set 10-3 Thursday afternoon. This article was published prior to the conclusion of the opening game of the series at the RingCentral Coliseum Friday night.
Seattle won their third straight and their sixth game in the last eight contests as they swept the Angels at home with Wednesday’s victory. The Mariners entered Friday second in the AL West, 11.5 games behind the Astros for the top spot. In the AL wild card picture, the team owned the top wild card spot entering Friday by one game over Tampa Bay and Toronto: they were 2.5 games ahead of the Twins to remain on the right side of the playoff cut line. On Wednesday, Seattle got two hits from Cal Raleigh (two runs, three RBI), Adam Frazier (two runs) and Mitch Haniger (two runs, RBI) in the victory. Raleigh (his 17th and 18th) homered twice while Jesse Winker (his 13th) and Eugenio Suarez (his 20th) each went deep in the win. George Kirby (5-3) earned the win as he allowed three runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts over 5.2 innings.
Logan Gilbert is on the hill for the Mariners in the opener as he makes his 26th start of the season in this contest. He is 10-5 with a 3.51 ERA, a 1.243 WHIP, 41 walks and 127 strikeouts over 138.1 innings of work this year. Gilbert didn’t factor in the decision in his last start, which came against the Rangers Sunday on the road. He threw six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts in a game the Mariners eventually dropped 5-3. In his last three starts, Gilbert is 0-1 with a 9.39 ERA, a 2.02 WHIP, nine walks and nine strikeouts over 15.1 innings of work. Gilbert makes his sixth career start against the A’s in this contest. He comes in 1-0 with a 4.44 ERA, a 1.233 WHIP, five walks and 21 strikeouts over 24.1 innings of work against them. In his lone start at the RingCentral Coliseum, which came on May 25, 2021, he didn’t factor in the decision. Gilbert allowed two runs on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts ove r four innings in a game the Mariners went on to win 4-3.