The Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners face each other 57 times every year during the regular season, but it feels like even more than that.
Both clubs play plenty of exciting games each summer, just rarely against each other. When they meet up, it tends to be a low-scoring affair that somehow isn’t a pitcher’s duel, and it’s often decided on something annoying like a throwing error or a random homer from a deep bench player. Extra innings are common and interminable.
Saturday’s Cactus League exhibition was that kind of game. The A’s and Mariners combined for just five hits and finished in a 1-1 tie, a result that’s even more boring than is usually possible by rule between this pair of star-crossed squads.