Mariners Game Preview: Karns to Face Angels

The Mariners will hope to stay hot against the Angels on Friday night in Seattle.

The Seattle Mariners (21-13) will start a 3-game weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels (13-21) on Friday night at Safeco Field. Nate Karns (3-1, 3.38 ERA) will take the mound for the Mariners and Nick Tropeano (1-2, 3.69 ERA) will start opposite him for the Angels. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PST from the corner of Edgar & Dave.

Nathan Karns has been a delightful surprise over the last three or so starts. Proving that Jerry Dipoto, Scott Servais and Co. made the correct decision in choosing Karns as the #5 starter for this rotation.  Since his dominant start on April 26th against Houston, Karns has earned a 2-0 record with a 1.86 ERA. In his start against Oakland a couple weeks ago, where he still earned the win thanks to some offensive heroics by the Mariners, he gave up three runs. Aside from those runs, teams have struggled mightily getting runs across the plate when he is pitching. A trend that I hope continues tonight.

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Angels starter Nick Tropeano has not had a win since his first start of the season. He has yet to go a complete 6 innings in any start. He has also given up at least 2 runs per start since an April 22nd start against the Mariners, giving up five and three earned runs in his last two starts, including 7 walks over his last ten innings. One thing to keep in mind for Tropeano, is that he is pretty consistent at Safeco. Only giving up 4 hits/2 runs with 5 strikeouts in each of his three starts at Safe co. We may not want to expect scoring a ton of runs off of him tonight, but anything can happen the way the Mariners offense is hitting.

Here is the Mariners lineup for the series lid-lifter as presented by M’s skipper Scott Servais:

Pick to Click 

This may be an unpopular opinion, but my pick to click tonight is Adam Lind. Riley picked him to be a factor in Wednesday’s game, but I thought I’d give him another shot. Lind has a history of mashing right-handed pitchers and what better pitcher to start against than a struggling righty? That’s right. No one. I predict he goes 2-for-4, with a real double and an RBI single.

Next: Mariners Minor-League Roundup: Who's Hot and Who's Not

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!