After the Seattle Mariners had a successful road trip going 7-3 against the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians they have return home to play three games against the Oakland A’s and the Los Angeles Angels before going on another road trip for seven games including a makeup game against the Minnesota Twins at the end of the trip.
This is a crucial home series since they are playing against division rivals. It is important that the Mariners do well on this home stand not only because they are division rivals but not to make things bad because of the road trip. They don’t want slip back and stay on the momentum of the road trip.
The Mariners currently are in second place behind the Houston Astros by two and half games so they don’t want slide back further and then the A’s are two and half games behind the Mariners and the Angels are just a half-game behind. It is important that the Mariners stand their course in the standings at least if not gain on those three teams.
Felix Hernandez goes for the Mariners Tuesday night against the A’s. He has twenty-five wins in his career against them so making another victory to start the series would be might fine. James Paxton starts the second game of the series against the A’s and then Erasmo Ramirez finishes the series off. We hope that Paxton can pitch well again like he did in his last outing though he didn’t get the win. Depending on how he does this could be Ramirez last chance to have the spot in the rotation. With the off-day on Monday I was hoping the Mariners would ship his spot in the rotation but it isn’t happening.
Mike Leake is scheduled to start on Friday against the Angels and will likely be followed by Marco Gonzales on Saturday and Felix on Sunday.
The importance of this home stand is for the offense to continue hitting well and the starting pitching to be able to pitch into or through the sixth inning. The bullpen should all be set to go with the off-day on Monday. Dan Altavilla struggled in his outing on Sunday and James Pazos pitched as well so likely won’t pitch in this game and wait until later in this series against Oakland. Juan Nicasio and Edwin Diaz both pitched on Sunday as well without any pressure so they should be ready to go Tuesday if they are needed. The rest of the bullpen should be available to pitch.
The importance of the pitching against the A’s is not walking batters and giving up home runs especially to those in the middle of the lineup. The A’s can score runs really quickly so that is so important to do so. Felix will need not to struggle at the beginning of the game. If he doesn’t than he should do well in the game. It has been where he has been handicapped this season allowing runs early and it is important that the Mariners score runs for him too. Go M’s.
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