Let’s not think about the Bay Bridge Series. We’ll put it to one side and focus on what’s ahead and that is another six games in this home-stand.
Seattle Mariners (H)
Season series so far: 4-6
The Mariners rescued a win from their series in Houston on Sunday and in doing so pulled to within 3.0 games of the A’s in the standings. They will see this two-game series as a chance to close right in on us, whereas we need to get back to winning ways and, ideally, take both games to level up the season series 6-6. The probable pitching match-ups are as follows:
- Gm1. Paul Blackburn – Marco Gonzales
- Gm2. Cole Irvin – Chris Flexen
New York Yankees (H)
Season series so far: 1-2
After an off-day on Wednesday we start a huge four-game series at the Coliseum against the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers come in to the week on a nine-game winning streak. They play the Braves in Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday before heading to the west coast.
Our previous series was in mid-June. The A’s took the opener at Yankee Stadium thanks to a strong start by James Kaprielian, against the team that drafted him, but the A’s then dropped the next two games by scores of 7-5 and 2-1.
Sunday’s game has been moved back three hours as part of being ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game. That would normally be a bit of a pain for us given the time difference; however the Bank Holiday Monday that follows means that we can catch up on any lost sleep easily enough.
The pitching match-ups currently line up as follows:
- Gm1. James Kaprielian – Jameson Taillon
- Gm2. Sean Manaea – Nestor Cortes
- Gm3. Frankie Montas – Gerrit Cole
- Gm4. Paul Blackburn – Jordan Montgomery.
