Seattle @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( May 17, 2010 ) Seattle 4, Oakland 8
The Oakland Athletics found a relatively simple solution to end their five-game losing streak Monday night: Welcome the Seattle Mariners to town.
Seattle was traveling cross-country after playing at the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, so some jet lag could be expected. But it wasn’t so much that the Mariners’ moribund offense that let them down in Oakland. Rather it was starting pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith.
A left-hander from Australia, Rowland-Smith posted his shortest outing of the season, going just 2 2/3 innings and allowing a career-high seven runs on 10 hits in an 8-4 Athletics victory. Rowland-Smith (0-4) gave up a pair of two-run homers to Adam Rosales and Kevin Kouzmanoff and a two-run double to Rajai Davis. Seattle faced a 7-1 deficit after just three innings.
Rowland-Smith has seen his outings dwindle from 4 1/3 to 3 to 2 2/3 innings in his last three starts and is almost certainly headed to the bullpen. He could possibly be sent to Triple-A Tacoma, but the Mariners would risk losing him as he would have to clear waivers.
In battering Rowland-Smith and the Mariners, the Athletics not only snapped their five-game losing streak - in which they managed just five runs - but also tied a season high with 15 hits. Rosales and Daric Barton had each been mired in 0-for-15 slumps, but had three hits apiece in the contest. In fact, Barton was a home run shy of the cycle.
The Mariners (14-24), who have lost 13 of their past 16 games and are a season-worst 10 games under .500, have had a habit of making average or struggling pitchers look like aces, and so it was Monday night as Gio Gonzalez (4-3) pitched seven innings and allowed just four hits and three runs.
A split of a two-game series constitutes success for the Mariners these days. So, the Mariners go back to ace Felix Hernandez (2-3, 3.88 ERA) for the finale of the short series Tuesday night.
The runner-up for the 2009 Cy Young Award, Hernandez allowed one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday. But the Mariners lost, 6-5, after allowing five runs in the eighth.
Opposing Hernandez will be right-hander Ben Sheets (2-3, 5.70), who has allowed just three runs in his past two starts. He received a no-decision when he faced the Mariners in the season opener, allowing two runs on four hits in five innings.
One bright spot Monday for the Mariners was third baseman Jose Lopez, who finished with three RBIs - his first since May 1.
A's starter Justin Duchscherer, who went back on the disabled list Sunday with an inflamed left hip, should find out this week if he will need surgery. If he does, it would likely end his season as the recovery process is four to six months.