A's turn to Cotton to stop bleeding at Mariners (Sep 02, 2017)
SEATTLE -- When the Oakland Athletics send Jharel Cotton to the mound on Saturday in hopes of blunting a four-game losing streak, they'll have the luxury of turning to one of their hottest pitchers.
Cotton (7-10) will be looking to win his third consecutive start against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field, after posting victories against the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. His last outing against the Rangers was a gem, going six innings and allowing one run with no walks and 11 strikeouts.
But Saturday's contest will be coming against a team that has seen the Oakland right-hander have no luck at all in the Mariners. In two starts this season, he has pitched 12 innings and given up eight runs for a 6.00 ERA, surrendering four home runs in doing so.
The flip side is that Seattle pitcher Yovani Gallardo (5-10) is mired in his own personal cold streak, having lost his last three starts. However, Gallardo has shined against Oakland this year, going 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA in four starts against the Athletics (58-76) -- his only wins against Oakland in his career.
All of this comes as the Mariners (67-68) are trying to stay competitive in the American League wild-card chase. Seattle goes into Saturday's game against Oakland 3 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the league's final playoff berth.
It's sort of a reminder of last season, when the Mariners were in very nearly the same spot.
"We've been there before," Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "But you can't control what anybody else does."
In the middle of all of this, both teams are trying to fit in a bunch of new faces after the rosters expanded on Friday.
One of those players is Oakland left-handed reliever Sam Moll, who made his major league debut on Friday.
Athletics manager Bob Melvin smiled when asked about Moll's performance in his one-third of an inning on Friday night when he induced Yonder Alonso to fly out to left.
"Pretty good sample -- he got someone out," Melvin said. "I told him, there's nothing to it. I wasn't aware that was his first big-league appearance -- I found that out a little later."
Similar to Moll, the Mariners added two players on Friday who could make their major league debuts in right-hander Ryan Garton and catcher Mike Marjama.
Oakland added four players to its roster while Seattle added six, which also allows the teams the possibility of playing to matchups more. And there could be more to come.
The biggest impact will come with more arms in the bullpen. The Mariners added right-handers Dan Altavilla, Shae Simmons and Andrew Moore on Friday.
"As far as matching up, you'll see us going to the bullpen a little bit earlier," Servais said. "You don't have to wait. If you can get the starter through five (innings), because you've got extra arms out there now. You may see more of that going on. The games will get longer.
"I'm not a big fan of having 35 or 40 guys on the (roster) card, but those are the rules we're playing under, so we'll try to play them as best we can."
