The A’s won on some fireworks last night thanks to a late extra-inning blast from Donovan Walton. That gave the A’s the first win of the weekend series against the Mariners, who are desperate for wins right now. The postseason is slipping away from them and the A’s are doing their part dragging them away from October baseball. We want our division rivals joining us on the couch this playoffs and that’ll look even more likely with another win tonight.
The team will get a big boost on offense tonight as the squad welcomes back catcher Shea Langeliers from the injured list, with him taking Darell Hernaiz’s roster spot:
Langeliers beat all the expectations that he was done for the year. He’ll wind up missing just over seven weeks, beating the expectations that his season was over. While he won’t be catching for the remainder of the season, getting his bat back in the lineup sure helps for the final couple weeks, and gives both him and team some peace of mind about his knee’s health heading into the winter.
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To the game. Tonight’s starting pitcher for the Athletics will be rookie Gage Jump. The southpaw is has shown his talent plenty of times this season but with plenty of rookies consistency has been an issue. Jump got hit especially hard during August, when he posted a 7.58 ERA in his six starts. He seemed to enjoy the calendar flipping to September since he looked much better his last time out, which was against these same Mariners. Up in Seattle last weekend Jump held down the M’s to just two runs, but he exited after only four innings of work and eventually was saddled with the loss. Everyone will be looking for more length this evening in Sacramento, where Jump has struggled more compared to the road.
Here’s how the Athletics’ lineup shakes out for the second game of the series:
Langeliers slides right back into the heart of the order batting fourth behind Bolte, McNeil and Butler. After his walk off homer last night Walton rises to the fifth spot in the order while Zack Gelof drops all the way to sixth. It’s Cortes and Heim in left and catcher again, respectively, and Alika Williams is back in the lineup after a night off manning his usual shortstop position.
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Seattle meanwhile will turn to righty Bryan Woo, asking him to help keep their season alive. Woo, a Bay Area native, has been a consistent and solid arm for the Mariners this season, making all of his starts and sporting a 4.03 ERA entering tonight. There’s more to his story however. When pitching in his home ballpark in Seattle Woo is among the best pitchers in the game. On the road? A different, worse pitcher. That doesn’t bode well for his chances tonight against an A’s team surging and getting their best hitter back.
And the Seattle starting nine:
The A’s have enjoyed playing spoiler in recent weeks and why stop now? Keep our foot on the Mariners’ throats and their season is almost toast thanks to us. Time for another nail in their coffin. Let’s go A’s!
Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA
Listen:
Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, KVMX 92.1/105.5, A’s Cast
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