Seattle Mariners Series Preview: At Oakland Athletics

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Seattle Mariners have been wildly impressive on the first series of the season. In particular we’ve seen some incredible stuff from Justin Smoak, who has gone bananas over the first few games of the season; and young Brad Miller, who cranked out two homers in Tuesdays win.

I think my favorite part of the last series was that the M’s didn’t let off the gas with the lead. This is a team that was 12th in the AL last season in runs scored, so it is really nice to see them give their pitching staff some run support. I’m sure Felix loved it too.

The Mariners move just up the street to Oakland for a four game set against the A’s. This will be the second divisional matchup for the M’s for Opening Week, and we all know how important those are.

Mariners Notes:

Kyle Seager rode pine on for Wednesday night’s game in favor of Willie Bloomquist. There’s nothing to be concerned about here though, this was more than likely a chance for manager Lloyd McClendon to get some playing time in for utility-man Bloomquist.

Bobby LaFromboise and Carlos Triunfel were claimed off of waivers after being DFA’d (LaFromboise to San Diego, Triunfel to LA). While this isn’t the most surprising news of the day, it’s sad to see them go. Truinfel might turn into a decent infielder, but there’s no room for him to advance in a Seattle system flush with Miller, Franklin, Cano, Bloomquist and Ackley.

Erasmo Ramirez had a stellar outing on Tuesday night going 7 innings and giving up only 6 hits for the win. He has big shoes to fill while we await the return of Hisashi Iwakuma, who was playing long toss in Anaheim on Wednesday, no timetable yet on his return, but at the very least he’s throwing again; so that’s positive.

Oakland Notes:

Oakland’s new closer, Jim Johnson, has failed to impress in this young season. After completely melting down in a scoreless game, Johnson got worked over and took the loss in a painful Opening Night for the A’s.

Brandon Moss has taken over the cleanup spot in the lineup, for now anyways. It’s still way early in the season, but Moss had a stellar spring batting .364 with 4 HRs and 14RBIs. Moss has temporarily taken over that spot from Yoenis Cespedes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cespedes earn that spot back quickly.

The A’s are a platooning club but they are ideally set up to face leftie pitchers, luckily for the M’s their rotation consists of three right handers for the four game series in Oakland.

Probable Matchups: