TLDR: The Mariners are still clinging to a long-shot wild card push, and the last-place Athletics are exactly the kind of team standing between them and October.
Jack Perkins (3-10, 6.42 ERA) takes the ball for Oakland on Friday, September 4, opposite Kade Anderson, who's making just his 3rd career start after a debut that saw him allow 3 runs in 5.2 innings before Seattle walked it off against the Cubs. Anderson dominated Double-A to the tune of a 1.06 ERA before the call-up, and this is his first look at an AL West rival.
Jack Perkins
(3-11)·6.14 ERA
Aug 29 vs Orioles
L
5.0IP
1ER
5K
4BB
80P
09/03 Lineup
Kade Anderson
(1-2)·5.33 ERA
Aug 29 @ Blue Jays
ND
4.1IP
2ER
3K
3BB
85P
09/03 Lineup
Perkins is the more established arm in name only. He's issued multiple walks in 5 of his last 10 outings and coughed up multiple homers 3 times in 5 starts, even as his strikeout rate has stayed near the top of the league. Seattle, meanwhile, is trying to plug a lineup that's missing Brendan Donovan to a concussion and waiting on Nick Davila and Matt Brash to work back from injury in the bullpen.
Oakland's situation is worse by a mile. Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Brent Rooker and Jacob Wilson are all on the 60-day injured list, and Tommy White is day-to-day with back soreness after exiting a game this week — that's most of a lineup core gone at once for a team already 32 games under .500.
Seattle has won 2 straight and taken 2 of 3 from Boston to climb back to respectability after a rough stretch against Toronto, but the Mariners are still buried in the AL wild card race with not much room for error left on the calendar. The Athletics, for what it's worth, snapped a 4-game skid with a lopsided win over Texas — a reminder that even a 54-86 club can have a night.
None of that changes the shape of this one: a team fighting for its season hosting a team playing out the string, with a rookie phenom on the mound trying to prove he belongs before the young Mariners core needs him to.
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