Both the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees remain in the thick of things in the convoluted AL Wild Card race. The Yankees sit three games up on everyone else while the Mariners are only a couple games back of the other spot. With how this season has gone and given the current standings, this series is crucial for both teams.
This series will be contested from Friday, August 25, 2017 through Sunday, August 27, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in New York. MLB Network will cover the first two games of the series for those watching from outside the local television markets. Sunday’s game will be broadcast on TBS.
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Pitching Matchups
While only a handful of games separate these teams in the standings, the pitching matchups appear to pin two teams in opposite ends of the spectrum head-to-head.
The series will kick off on Friday with a pair of lefties as Ariel Miranda toes the rubber for the Mariners against C.C. Sabathia.
Miranda leads Seattle in innings pitched and has been the most reliable arm in the rotation based on both production and healthy, but he’s just 8-6 with a 4.78 ERA and while he does a good job limiting base runners, he’s prone to the long ball and the Yankees can hit the ball far; just ask Aaron Judge.
The Cuban native pitched 5.2 innings of two-run ball the last time he faced the Bronx Bombers, but he’s struggled since then. In five starts, he’s allowed 22 runs in 26.1 innings. He’s allowed nine homers in that time as well.
As for Sabathia, the aging southpaw has superior numbers to Miranda pitching in a much less pitcher friendly park. He’s 10-5 with a 3.99 ERA and has allowed just 14 homers in 20 starts.
With diminished stuff, Sabathia has learned how to get outs without his blazing fastball, but he’s lacked some consistency in his new approach. He’ll go on stretches where the throws well and then have several starters where he struggles. He allowed two runs in six innings against the Red Sox last time out, but had allowed four runs in each of three games immediately preceding that.
Of the three matchups, perhaps the worst for the Mariners comes on Saturday when they send Yovanni Gallardo to the mound opposite Sonny Gray.
Gallardo is back in the rotation more out of necessity than merit. The right-hander has been on a downward spiral for a couple years now and is 5-9 with a 5.75 ERA, but with James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma all on the DL, there are few options remaining.
The veteran right-hander fell off the table and has only gotten worse. The Mariners are 9-15 in games he pitches and although he did deliver a quality start last time out, it was his first is June 12. He was okay in his only start against the Yankees this year, giving up three runs in five innings.
Gray, on the other hand, is just 1-3 in his first four starts in the pinstripes, but has pitched to a 3.13 ERA and has been let down by the offense and defense around him.
His control since joining the Yanks has been a matter of concern, but he’s otherwise continued to pitch as he did with Oakland.
In his last outing, Gray allowed two runs, but lasted only five innings against the Red Sox. That snapped a streak of nine straight quality starts. Overall, Gray is 7-8 with a 3.38 ERA combined between Oakland and New York.
Having pitched in the AL, he’s faced Seattle plenty of times. He’s 4-2 with a 2.86 ERA in 10 starts against them.
As for the finale of this series, the 31-year old Andrew Albers makes just his 15th big league start taking on the Yankees’ ace Masahiro Tanaka.
Sure, Tanaka’s had a down year, but he’s got much better stuff than an aging journeyman. Besides, he’s been throwing the ball better of late even if he did allow four runs over six frames last time against Seattle.
Offensive Breakdown
The Yankee bats have slowed in the second half and the struggles of Aaron Judge since the break are well documented. A recent shake up of the lineup, however, had immediate results and the Yankees have now won back-to-back games and have taken seven of their last nine.
On Tuesday, Joe Girardi bumped Gary Sanchez to the three-hole and moved Judge back a spot. Judge responded with his first strikeout free day in a long time, walking three times. Sanchez responded with a three-hit game, including a pair of homers and four RBIs.
Aaron Hicks also homered in the game as New York is trying to get his bat back to its pre-injury form. There’s certainly enough there offensively for the Yanks to keep pace with the Mariners. In fact, even with New York’s slump the Yanks and Mariner scored the same number of runs in their first 20 games in August.
Seattle, of course, has the league’s RBI leader in Nelson Cruz, but he’s the only real stand out in the order. Robinson Cano and Jean Segura are having good years. Mike Zunino and Kyle Seager are producing average numbers. Meanwhile, Mitch Haniger and Ben Gamel have regressed from their torrid starts.
Bullpen Breakdown
The Yankees have the fourth ranked bullpen in baseball with a 3.35 ERA and much of that came before the midseason upgrade.
In August, New York is 7-for-10 in save chances with Tommy Kahnle and Aroldis Chapman both struggling, combining for 13 runs in 13.2 innings while walking 10 between them. Of course, with relievers we’re dealing with tiny sample sizes, but relievers are also fickle creatures.
The names are there for New York and the production over the year has been obvious. Still, when two of your late game arms have been slumping, it’s hard to have too much confidence in a pen.
The Mariners have blown more saves over the season than New York, but Edwin Diaz is nine for nine in save chances in August despite an inflated 5.06 ERA. He’s gotten the job done even if he has sporting questionable command to do it.
The issue for Seattle, however, has been getting to Diaz. Of course, the middle relievers can only take so much of the blame when the unit has been overworked by an underperforming rotation.
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