Interleague! Mariners Make A Quick Stop In Atlanta

Are we having fun yet? Kyle Seager certainly is. What a night from a guy who has been decidedly hot-and-cold so far this season. Yesterday’s make-up game kicked off a seven game/eight day East coast swing, which now has the M’s playing some interleague against the NL East leading Atlanta Braves, here’s the preview for the quick two-game set.

Matchups

Game one: Erasmo Ramirez (1-4, 6.00 ERA) v. Gavin Floyd (0-2, 2.37 ERA)

Erasmo is back in town! After spending almost a month back in Tacoma, Erasmo got called back up to the big club in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging stemming from Brandon Maurer starts. Erasmo has only made 6 MLB appearances so far this season, winning only his first way back on April 1st.  Floyd is recently back from Tommy John surgery and he’s been good over 5 starts this season. He’s put up 27 strikeouts in just over 30 innings of work, which spells trouble for some of the guys this week.

Game two: Hisashi Iwakuma (3-2, 3.09) v. Mike Minor (2-3, 3.41 ERA)

After coming back at the beginning of May in a Flurry of strikeouts, Hisashi Iwakuma has looked human again, taking losses in his last two starts. He was uncharacteristically bad against the Tigers when he went 6.0 innings yielding 8 hits and 5 runs. Look for him to bounce back against a Braves club that hasn’t seen a lot of him yet. Minor has been better than his 2-3 record indicates so far. Of his three losses, two were decided by less than 2 runs, and Minor has given up 3+ runs only once since starting the season. MLB is noting that he’s put a lot of work into his curveball, and he’s seeing dividends.

Mariners Notes

• I’d like to say that Kyle Seager is going to stay hot, but last time I did that he slumped pretty hard again. So I’ll simply mention that he was awesome yesterday, and let’s keep er going.
• Check out this Yankees fan who didn’t boo Robinson Cano on his return to New York yesterday. That sandwich looks so damned delicious.
• Speaking of Robbie, he’s currently got the AL Lead at second base for the All-Star vote. At the moment Cano is up on Ian Kinsler by 75,000 votes or so. Cano has been having a good season at the plate, though his 2 HRs are certainly less than we expected, his .327 avg is something to be excited about.
• Still no word on when Taijuan Walker is going to be back, most are expecting at least one more rehab start from him. If things go well for Erasmo tonight there might be less pressure from the fans to get him back.
• The Mariners are historically pretty bad for interleague, 0-3 so far this season, and were 8-12 last year.

Braves Notes

• Braves closer Craig Kimbrel has 154 career saves for the Braves, tying John Smoltz for the franchise record. His next will give him the all-time Atlanta saves record.
• If I recall correctly, Dan Hughes (One of our fearless editors here) is a former Braves fan. We’ll see where his allegiance truly lies.
• B.J. Upton is returning home to Tuner Field this week, which is great news for him (less so for Mariners fans). Upton has been devastating at home with 10 Homers and a .400 avg.
• The Braves are riding a three-game winning streak that has them 2.5 games up on the Marlins for first in the NL East right now.

Around the AL West

Last night’s win puts the M’s over .500….again. It’s almost irritating how often we’ve said that this summer. Anyways, a quick week on the road could give the M’s a chance to get some wins back, as their road record is better than their home right now.  6 Games back of the A’s right now, so still in it, which is more than we can say for some recent seasons.

• Oakland is on the road for a tough series against the AL East, first a three game set against the Yankees, then over to Baltimore. The Yankees are looking to get some ground back on the Blue Jays, who are still atop the East.
• The Angels are in Houston this week to face the Astros. I ordinarily dismiss the Astros because that’s what everyone does. But I’ll be damned if the Astros aren’t 7-3 in their last ten games. Hopefully they can keep it going at home and knock those Angles down a few pegs.
• Texas is at home against the Orioles this week. The Orioles, like the Mariners, have been bouncing around the .500 mark for a while.