Today In Brewer History: Meet the Mariners

On this day in 1977 the Brewers racked up 15 hits en route to a 7-1 win over the Mariners. Lary Sorensen pitched a complete game for the victory and Sal Bando homered in the first-ever meeting between these two teams.

The Mariners were an expansion franchise, the city of Seattle's first entry into MLB since the Pilots had left to become the Brewers in spring of 1970. Including this day the two teams have met 233 times, with the Brewers leading the all-time series 119-114.

Here are some fun facts about this matchup:

• Robin Yount is the Brewer career leader with 212 hits against the M's, representing slightly less than 7% of his career total. Paul Molitor was a distant second with 156 hits, but posted a .316 batting average against Seattle.
• Yount also led all Brewers with 23 career home runs and 110 RBI against Seattle. The 110 RBI are the tenth most ever by an opposing player against the Mariners.
• Ken Griffey had 101 hits and 17 home runs against the Brewers during his time in Seattle, leading both categories.
• Randy Johnson pitched for Seattle against Milwaukee 19 times and struck out 131 batters over 130.2 innings, including 13 in a game in 1993.

These two teams haven't met since June of 2010, when the Brewers took two of three. They'll hook up again this August in Seattle, where the Brewers will be the visiting team for the first time.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• Juan Francisco, who turns 26.
• La Crosse native and UW-Madison and La Crosse alum Tom Klawitter, who turns 55. He appeared in the majors as a member of the 1985 Twins.
• 1982 and 1996-98 Brewer Doug Jones, who turns 56.
• Seattle Pilot Don Mincher, who would have turned 75. We covered his birthday in this space last year.

Today is also the 25th anniversary of three Brewers each stealing a pair of bases in their 5-4 win over the Angels in 1988. We covered that event in this space two years ago.