Baltimore Orioles: Previewing the Seattle Mariners series

The Baltimore Orioles wrap up their West Coast road trip with a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field 2,772 miles away from Camden Yards.

Hopefully, the Baltimore Orioles will get a few wins against the Mariners who are sitting with a record of 59-60. The Orioles have an win-loss record of 58-60.

Even though their records are nearly the same, the similarities end there.

Hard-hitting veterans

The Mariners do have a pair of hard-hitting veterans. Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano continue to be forces at the plate. Cruz is quickly approaching 100 RBIs and he leads the team in home runs with 28. No other Mariner has more than 20 home runs. But, Cano is close with19 home runs. He also has a seriously low number of strikeouts. The guy knows his zone. Cano has played in 107 games, but has only 53 Ks. Contrast that with Chris Davis who currently has 132.

Along with Cano in the 3rd stop and Cruz batting clean up, there are a few other Mariners to watch. Shortstop Jean Segura is the lead-off batter and his slash shows why: .315/.369/.435 and OPS of .804. Kyle Seager can be dangerous, too. He is batting .256/.326/.449 with an OPS of .776. He’s right behind Cano with 18 home runs.

The O’s certainly top the Mariners in home runs. Four O’s have more than 20 home runs: Jonathan Schoop, Adam Jones, Manny Machado, and Trey Mancini. Davis and Trumbo both have 18. When it comes to extra-base hits, the teams are close. The Mariners top five doubles hitters have 116 combined, while the O’s have 113. The Mariners have 14 triples to the 9 that the O’s have. Since Safeco Field has a larger outfield than Camden Yards, the Mariners having more triples is understandable.

The Mariners just ended a four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels; the Angels swept them. The Angels won all four games by three runs or fewer. And, the final win was credited to Angels pitcher Parker Bridwell – who also happened to just get a win against his former team.

Pitching match-ups, so far

In the three-game series, the probable pitchers have already been announced with on exception. Tonight’s game will feature Kevin Gausman against Yovani Gallardo. Gausman will need to pitch carefully when Cano is at the plate as the second-baseman has a .417 average against him in the last five season. Mark Trumbo has had his way with Gallardo’s pitches. The slugger has .556 average against him. Gallardo has a season ERA of 5.38 and Gausman is currently sitting with a 5.21.

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Wade Miley will pitch on Tuesday for the O’s, but the Mariners have yet to announce their starter. With Felix Hernandez on the DL with shoulder bursitis, the Mariners only have four starters in their rotation right now.

Wednesday’s game should feature Ubaldo Jimenez against Marco Gonzales. Despite O’s losing in Jimenez’s last start, he struck out 11 batters in 5.1 innings. Gonzalez is a 25-year-old rookie who has only made two starts for the Mariners. He began his MLB career with the St. Louis Cardinals, but only threw in 40.2 innings for them. He was traded in late July and has an 6.48 ERA in his two starts.

Next: Orioles' catching duo tops in the AL

Several Mariners have done well against Jimenez, especially Yonder Alonzo and Cano who both have averages against him over .600. Hopefully, Jimenez will bring his A-game as he pitches in a day game in Emerald City. The teams face-off tonight at 10:10 PM.