It was a disastrous 10-day road trip for the Seattle Mariners to cap off a disastrous month. The team went 2-8 on their east coast swing and have now lost 21 of 28 ball games.
The Mariners will hope to get back to their winning ways when they welcome the division rival Oakland A’s to Seattle for a 2-game set. It will be the two teams first meeting since they opened the season in Japan back on March 21-22.
Seattle will send Yusei Kikuchi to the mound for game 1. Kikuchi is coming off his two best outings and was one of the few bright spots on the Mariners 2-8 road trip. Kikuchi allowed just 2 earned runs in 14.2 innings with 13 strikeouts against Cleveland and the Yankees. Oakland will counter with Mike Fiers, whom the team already battered for 5 runs in 3 innings in Japan.
Game 2 will feature a battle of veteran’s Mike Leake and Brett Anderson. Leake has struggled with the long ball this year but is coming off his best outing of the year. He went 7 innings, allowing just 6 hits and 1 run against the Yankees.
Anderson is well known as a Mariners killer. In 18 career starts, he has a 2.19 ERA against Seattle. Anderson has a 3.86 FIP, thanks in large part to allowing just 0.2 home runs per nine. His 1.44 WHIP and has struggled with walks (4.0 BB/9). Anderson is groundball heavy so the offense will need to string some hits together to beat Anderson.
Mariners fans will get to see J.P. Crawford at T-Mobile Park for the first time and perhaps Shed Long as well. Rumors are also surfacing that Mallex Smith will join the team in Seattle after an 11 day trip to Tacoma to work on his swing and defense.
Domingo Santana has gotten back on track, slashing .346/.414/.769 with 3 doubles, 2 home runs, and 1 triple in his last 7 games. Omar Narvaez is also continuing his All-Star campaign, slashing .342/.444/.553 over his last 13 games.
Both games have a 7:10 PM start time. The Mariners will then get their first off day since May 2nd before they welcome in the red hot Minnesota Twins for a 4-game weekend set.