Mariners Game Preview: Mariners Try for 6th Straight Series Win

Kuma looks for his first win of the season tonight in Oakland.

The Seattle Mariners (14-11) are set to take on the Oakland Athletics (13-14) tonight at Oakland Coliseum. The Mariners will send Hisashi Iwakuma (0-3, 4.65) to the mound to face Sonny Gray (3-2, 3.81) of the A’s. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm PT.

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In his last start against Houston, Iwakuma went 5 innings, allowing 5 runs on 7 hits while walking to and striking out 7. This season, he is walking an average of 1.8 batters per start while his career average is 1.3. That isn’t a huge increase and it is still early enough in the season to call it a relatively small sample size, but it’s something to look at. Iwakuma needs to get back to throwing strikes early and getting ahead of batters, if he can do that tonight he could be lights out.

Gray has been quite good so far this year with 26 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched while holding opposing batters to a .233 batting average. However, in his last start against Detroit, he lasted just 2 innings while allowing 4 runs on 4 walks and 2 hits. Gray has had trouble with walks this season, issuing 3 free passes a game. If the Mariners can get on base via the walk and take advantage of those opportunities, it could potentially be another short night for Gray.

Here are your starting lineups as announced my managers Scott Servais and Bob Melvin:

Pick to Click

I would imagine runs to be hard to come by tonight, but one player will stand out for the Mariners. I think our lone 2 runs on the night will come in the form of a 2 run homerun from Seth Smith. Smith is a career 3-6 off of Gray, nothing too impressive, but he has been he has been hot this season. Smith is batting .292 with 4 homeruns and 13 RBI in 2016, and .286 with 3 homeruns and 5 RBI in his last 10 games. I think he’ll finish the night going 1-3 with a walk and a 2-run homerun.

Final Score Prediction

With a pair of solid starting pitchers on the mound, I don’t forecast a lot of runs tonight. But one pitcher will make more mistakes than the other, and I think that will be Iwakuma. Not to say he will have a horrible start, I just think Gray will bounce back well from his last start, especially in front of his home crowd. I predict the M’s fall to the A’s 4-2.

Next: The Mariners Steal a Win from the Athletics

You can watch tonight’s game locally on Root Sports Northwest, and MLB.tv subscribers can watch worldwide on connected devices. Fans can also listen to the game live on 710 ESPN. And be sure to follow SoDo Mojo on twitter for live updates throughout the game, and check back after the final out has been recorded for a full recap. Go Mariners!