Every player has that one team they just cannot figure out. For Oakland A’s starter Cole Irvin, that team is the Seattle Mariners.
After questioning the Mariners’ talent level last season, Seattle used him as a personal batting practice machine. He made five starts against the Mariners, taking a loss in each outing as he allowed 19 runs on 35 hits and ten walks over his 19.2 innings, striking out 14 batters. He was essentially unusable against that one AL West rival.
Nothing changed with Cole Irvin and Seattle Mariners
There was reason to hope that this year would be different. Irvin has been the A’s best player this year, leading the team with a 3.0 bWAR entering Friday. While he had yet to face the Mariners in 2022, the fact that he is in the midst of the best season of his career was reason to hope that he had turned the page.
Instead, Irvin struggled again. He allowed six runs, five earned, on six hits and two walks over six innings, striking out two. Irvin was done in by the long ball as he surrendered a pair of homers to Eugenio Suarez – a two run shot in the fourth and a three run dagger in the sixth.
This outing was actually an improvement. Irvin had managed to pitch at least five innings in only one of his outings against Seattle last season – an outing on September 22 when he allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks in his five plus innings. The fact that he was able to get through six complete innings, and had pitched well until that final blast by Suarez, has to be encouraging in some aspect.
But the end result was the same. Irvin once again took a loss against the Mariners, his sixth in six career outings against them. At some point, if he is going to remain a part of the A’s future core, he will need to get over the hump.
Cole Irvin has taken a loss every time he has faced the Seattle Mariners. The Oakland A’s pitcher continued his struggles against them on Friday night.