by The Cleveland Guardians are heading out West for a 9-game road trip which all begins in Seattle.
The Guardians come in at 35-32 on the season following their 11-2 win over the Reds on Wednesday.
While the Mariners come in at 33-34 on the season, losers of 3 in a row, including 8 of their last 10.
Sitting at 8.5 games back of the Tigers for first place, and just a half game back of the Rays and Twins for the final wild card spot, this series in Seattle is shaping up to be a pretty big one. Especially with the Mariners at 2.5 games back in the wild card race themselves looking to make some ground.
Pitching Probables
So who will be on the mound? Let’s start with Friday night going into Sunday.
Gavin Williams vs Luis Castillo
Tanner Bibee vs George Kirby
Luis Ortiz vs Emerson Hancock
The good news for the Guardians is that they have their top three starters in the rotation going out in Williams, Bibee and Ortiz.
The bad news for the Guardians is that the Mariners also have two of their top starters going out in Castillo and Kirby.
As much concern as there is for the Guardians offense going into the series, the Mariners offense arguably has just as much concern in this very moment after a red hot start.
The Guardians offense comes in ranked 24th in BA, 22nd in OBP, 22nd in SLG, and 23rd in OPS.
The Mariners offense comes in ranked 20th in BA, 11th in OBP, 13th in SLG, and 13th in OPS.
Despite the Guardians having all of their top pitchers going this weekend, it’s going to be all up to the offense on the outcome of this series.
But there is some hope, as this offense is fairly better off RHP than LHP. Posting up a .238/.398/.710 slash line vs righties, and a .226/.328/.621 slash line vs lefties.
With three RHP lined up for the Mariners, one would think Kyle Manzardo is in a prime position to go off after his lack of playing time over the last week.
It should be a very interesting series going down in the Pacific Northwest.
