Thank God it's Oakland Part 2

By Patrick

Condor up!

Well, fuck. Erasmo Ramirez absolutely shined yesterday. I mean, the guy was stellar. Eight innings, one run, only THREE hits, and a whopping TEN strikeouts. Holy shit! What's going on here? Isn't he supposed to be the next Blake Beavan, Anthony? Told you so. 

So he got his first major league win right? Nope. Erasmo lost this game. He lost! The M's didn't score one measly run to back him up. That's called getting Fisted. Get you minds out of the gutter! It's called that since the Mariners did that to Doug Fister over and over again in 2012. Doug was 3-12 with an ERA in the threes. I guess Erasmo will just have to get used to this kind of fisting from here on out. OK, I'll stop.

June 26: Jason Vargas (7-7, 4.66) vs. Travis Blackley (1-2, 3.15)

Here's the deal. I've never heard of Travis Blackley before. But apparently I should know him. He was promoted after Freddy Garcia got shipped to the White Sox and made his major league debut for the Mariners in 2004. His coolest stat is having a AA record for wins in a season with 17 in 2003. He kind of sucked with the M's and then disappeared, only to hurt his shoulder and never play for the M's again.  Then he bounced around, left the MLB, and he's finally resurfaced in 2012 with the A's. He's also Australian, which means he likely has an awesome accent. His accent alone might be enough to baffle Mariners hitting tonight. Vargas on the other hand needs to get back on track after dropping his last three starts. This is a battle of lefties that should end up pretty even, since the Mariners' hitters hate lefties and Vargas loves Safeco.

Players to watch:

Michael Saunders: The Mariners really succeeded when Saunders had a .500 road trip. Maybe to kick start them again, they need Saunders to go off. Tonight could be a good time, since he's sneaky good against lefty pitchers as a lefty hitter. I look for Saunders to snap the M's scoreless streak by going deep in the second inning.  

Jonny Gomes: On one hand, Jonny Gomes sucks. He has a career .243 average, and is hovering around that in 2012. The one thing Gomes does really well is hit home runs. Ironically enough, Vargas has struggled with the long ball in 2012. See where I'm going here? Vargas needs to stay away from Gomes and make smart pitches to him, otherwise he'll put runs on the board in a hurry.

Prediction:

M's 5 A's 3: When will I ever learn? Never! Why would I ever pick the A's in an even pitching matchup? Because the M's haven't scored in 23 innings? Small formality. Vargas gets back on track tonight and Saunders leads the squad to victory. Go M's.