After Honoring “The King,” Mariners Have Four More Games of Royals!

Seattle celebrated the achievements of one of the team’s greats, Felix Hernandez, over the weekend. After the last game against the Orioles, the Mariners begin a ten-game road trip with visits to the Kansas City Royals for four games, Houston Astros for three games, and the Chicago White Sox for three games. After a day off, they will then have déjà vu when the Royals appear at T-Mobile Park for a second series.

The Royals have had a rough season, currently with a win-loss record of 37-80. They are 27th in MLB for hitting and 28th in MLB for pitching. They just split a two-game series with the Cardinals and prior to St. Louis, they lost three out of four games to the Red Sox. I hope that the Mariners do not underestimate the team, however, as they have beaten each of these teams at least once: the Blue Jays, the Angels, the Orioles, the Padres, Tampa Bay, the Dodgers, the Phillies, and the Red Sox.

What Will the Pitching Matchups Be?

Unfortunately for the Royals, several of their pitchers are on the injured list, such as Zack Greinke. These will be the pitching matchups for the four games.

Monday 8/14: RHP Logan Gilbert, 3.66 ERA, 59 runs, and 138 SOs in 137.2 IPs v. RHP Brady Singer, 5.05 ERA, 74 runs, and 108 SOs in 128.1 IP.

Tuesday 8/15: RHP Emerson Handcock, 1.8 ERA, 1 run, and 3 SOs in 5 IPs v. RHP Jordan Lyles, 6.13 ERA, 91 runs, and 88 SOs in 126.1 IPs.

Wednesday 8/16: RHP Luis Castillo, 3.14 ERA, 58 runs, and 163 SOs in 143.1 IPs v. RHP Alec Marsh, 6.27 ERA, 24 runs, and 35 SOs in 33 IPs.

Thursday 8/17 RHP George Kirby, 3.11 ERA, 52 runs, and 131 SOs in 144.2 IPs v. LHP Angel Zerpa, 7.71 ERA, 9 runs, and 3 SOs in 9.1 IPs.

Hitting and Defense

The Royals have a few players with higher-than-average batting averages. Bobby Witt, MJ Melendez, and Salvador Perez stand out. Read the following statistics as "Freddy Fermin (Catcher) .307 Batting Average, 50 hits, and 27 Runs Batted In in 163 At Bats."

Freddy Fermin (C) .307 BA, 50 hits and 27 RBIs in 163 ABs

Salvador Perez (C or 1B) .249 BA, 101 hits and 49 RBIs in 406 ABs

Michael Massey (2B) .220 BA, 64 hits, and 37 RBIs in 291 ABs

Samad Taylor (2B or LF) .188 BA, 9 hits, and 4 RBIs in 48 ABs

Matt Duffy (SS or 3B) .267 BA, 40 hits, and 11 RBIs in 150 ABs

Bobby Witt, Jr. (SS) .272 BA, 128 hits, and 71 RBIs in 471 ABs

Maikel Garcia (3B) .286 BA, 90 hits, and 38 RBIs in 315 ABs

Dairon Blanco (LF or CF) .241 BA, 19 hits. and 12 RBIs in 79 ABs

MJ Melendez (RF or LF) .225 BA, 91 hits and 42 RBIs in 405 ABs

Edward Olivares (LF) .246 BA, 70 hits and 20 RBIs in 284 ABs

Kyle Isbel (CF) .237 BA, 49 hits, and 19 RBIs in 207 ABs

Nelson Velazquez (RF or PH, PR) .375 BA, 3 hits and 3 RBIs in 8 ABs.

Matt Beaty (1B, PH, DH) .240 BA, 6 hits and 3 RBIs in 25 ABs.

Our Mariners

Although Seattle lost two games in the tenth inning against the Orioles, they played very well in this last series. Our pitchers excelled. (Shout out to George Kirby for nine innings of shutout pitching!) Several of our batters hit well when needed. Kudos to Dominic Canzone in the last game!! We did miss J.P. Crawford and hope that his recovery will allow him to play this week. Go, Mariners!