Mariners Host Athletics in AL West Tilt Wednesday

Wed, Jun 2, 2021
By Jim Vassallo (Veri.bet Writer)

The Seattle Mariners host the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, June 2, at 10:10 PM ET at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington.

Seattle (28-28, 3rd in the AL West) will look to climb the standings when Oakland (32-25, 1st place in the AL West) visits.

Oakland picked up a win over Seattle on Tuesday night, 12-6. It was just the ninth win of the year (9-13) for Oakland against AL West opponents.

Seattle has a 13-9 mark against AL West teams so far in 2021 despite having the lowest team batting average in the league at .207.

The Oakland offense was led by Matt Olson on Tuesday night. He hit his 14th home run and drove in two runs with a big single in the seventh inning. Oakland was trailing 4-1 in the inning and rallied to score six runs en route to the victory.

Oakland manager Bob Melvin won his 799th game with the A’s, the most since the team moved to Oakland. 

"It's just another game. It just means I've been around for a while and I'm lucky to be around for a while," Melvin said.

Tony Kemp launched a two-run homer in the eighth and drove in five total runs, a tie for a career-high.

"When I get the opportunity to drive in some runs I just try to put some good at-bats together and it all came together tonight," Kemp said.

The Seattle bullpen took the brunt of the late-game rally by the A’s last night. The bullpen has been a strong part of the Mariners this year but wound up allowing 11 runs on 11 hits and issued five walks.

The loss to the A’s ended a five-game win streak for the Mariners.

"We were thin in the bullpen tonight. We knew that going into it, but I thought we had enough to get through. We just couldn't get that final out there in the seventh," Seattle manager Scott Servais said.

Jesús Luzardo picked up the win in relief for the A’s. He threw three scoreless innings, allowing only two hits while striking out six hitters.

Tonight’s contest features lefty Sean Manaea for the A‘s and righty Chris Flexen for the Mariners. Manaea is 3-2 on the year with an ERA of 3.86 with 62 strikeouts in 60.2 innings pitched.

Flexen is 5-2 on the year with a 4.34 ERA. He has just 30 strikeouts in 47.2 innings. Flexen has issued 10 walks and allowed five homers.

Olson leads Oakland in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. Mitch Haniger leads the same three categories for the Mariners.

Seattle sits 3.5 games behind Oakland in the AL West.

This is a tough one to pick as Seattle leads the season series 3-2. Oakland is favored by -1.5 runs tonight. With Seattle struggling so much at the plate, it’s best to place your bets on the spread and the Athletics as they push the Mariners further down the AL West division standings.