Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — The A’s, winners of four in a row, and eight of their last ten resume play Tuesday night against the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners are languishing in last place in the AL West with a record of 39-58. The A’s are in second place in the AL West and trail the first-place Houston Astros by six games.

The Mariners have been a tough team for the A’s to subdue. They have played the A’s fairly even this year even though they are not playing well. The A’s started slowly this season, but have turned the season around as they are now 12 games over the .500 mark with a record of 53-41. They have won eight of the last ten and four in a row. They swept all three games from the Chicago White Sox over the weekend.

The Mariners have announced that lefty Marco Gonzalez will pitch Tuesday night. Gonzalez is 10-7 for the year and has an ERA of 4.24. Gonzalez is 5-1 with an ERA of 2.89 in his last starts. He is 3-0 against Oakland and in his previous outing against the A’s he went eight innings, and the M’s beat the A’s 6-3. Daniel Mengden (4-1, 4.73 ERA) will pitch for Oakland. Mengden beat the M’s on July 7th at Seattle. He went 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs. Mengden is 1-2 lifetime versus the Mariners.

On Wednesday, Homer Bailey will make his debut for the A’s. The A’s obtained Bailey from the Kansa City Royals on Sunday. Bailey has an ERA of 3.49 over his last seven starts with the Royals and is 7-6 overall for the year, and is 1-1 against the M’s in two career starts. The M’s have not announced their pitcher for Wednesday’s game.

The A’s pitchers still will have to face several Mariners’ players that can do damage. M’s catcher Omar Narvaez hit two home runs against the A’s on July 7th. Narvaez is hitting .290 and has 14 homers and 36 RBI’s for the year. M’s first baseman Daniel Vogelbach, who also will DH, made the All-Star team and he comes in hitting .239 with 21 dingers and 51 ribbies. The A’s know that Dee Gordon, J.P.Crawford, Kyle Seager, Domingo Santana, Mallex Smith, and former SF Giant Mac Williamson are players that can do damage and the A’s pitchers will have to be careful facing them.

Mitch Haniger and Ryon Healy are two Mariners that are still on the IL. Haniger loves to hit against the A’s and Healy, who was traded to Seattle last year, would like nothing better than beating his old team. Healy may be available, but Haniger will not come off the IL until late July.

The A’s know that they have to beat teams that are not doing well. They would like to sweep the two-game series with the Mariners as they go on a seven-day road trip to the AL central leader, the Minnesota Twins for four, and the AL West leader, the Houston Astros for three. The A’s took two out of three from the Twins in early July. The Astros, on the other hand, have handled the A’s so far this season.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the A’s when they return home. They will play four with the Texas Rangers after the Astro series. The Rangers, one of the big surprises in baseball this season, and trailing the A’s by two games in the race for second place in the AL West, will be a big test for the A’s. After the series with the Rangers, the A’s will face two teams from the NL Central that are fighting for spots in the playoffs. They will play three against the Milwaukee Brewers and two against the St. Louis Cardinals. The A’s have been playing well.

They have the ingredients for success. Their starting pitching has been solid, and with the addition of Bailey, should get better. Liam Hendriks has stepped out and done the job as the team’s closer. Blake Treinen’s problems with control have taken him out of the closer’s role for the time being. The A’s are working to get him back to the form that he had in 2018. Lou Trivino also needs to get back to his 2018 form.

The rest of the bullpen has done the job.

The A’s offense has come to life, and there are no easy outs in the lineup. The A’s shine on defense, They have a Gold Glover at third and one at first. Marcus Semien has improved so much at shortstop. He is also a candidate for a Gold Glove. Ramon Laureano in centerfield has an incredible arm and Robbie Grossman, Mark Canha, and Chad Pinder are more than adequate on defense. Stephen Piscotty in on the 10-day IL with a sprained right knee.

The A’s won 97 games last season. They know that they are in a race for the second wild card slot right now. They trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 1 1/2 games for the first wild card slot. The Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, and Boston Red Sox are all teams that have a chance to make the playoffs. The A’s will not play the Indians or Red Sox again this year. They will face the White Sox back in Chicago in August and have seven with the lowly Kansas City Royals. They have eleven games left with the Astros and six with the New York Yankees.

The A’s are playing with confidence. A’s manager Bob Melvin has been punching all the right buttons. The message is clear. Take them one at a time and go out there and win.