Beginning on Friday, the Seattle Mariners will host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series at Safeco Field.
The Mariners come into the weekend series treading water in the extremely tough A.L. West at one game under .500 - still within relative striking distance (5.5 games out) of the red-hot Oakland A's as we enter the summer months of the season.
The A.L. Central-leading Tigers come in after an absolute battle of a four-game series in Oakland (a series which they split with the A's), looking to hit a groove as their West Coast swing continues in the Pacific Northwest.
Snapshot:
Home: Seattle Mariners
Record: (26-27, 12-14 home, 4th A.L. West)
Away: Detroit Tigers
Record: (30-20, 16-9 road, 1st A.L. Central)
Season Series: no games played
Key stat:
After starting the season 27-12, the Tigers have lost eight of eleven. They have given up nine or more runs in five of those losses.
Mariners outlook:
With one-third of the season seemingly flying by, the Mariners are still an extreme question mark heading into the heart of the MLB season.
While the Mariners have outperformed many baseball analysts' projections so far, the team has made it abundantly clear that hovering around the .500 mark isn't the goal with the A.L. Wild Card race seemingly wide open in 2014.
To ensure they're in a position to make some noise down the stretch, the Mariners' bats need to come alive and quickly. Seattle is hitting just .234 this season, which is good for 28th in the Majors.
Tigers outlook:
The Detroit Tigers hit a rough patch before splitting four games with the American League-leading A's, but you wouldn't know it from the way this veteran team carries themselves in their day-to-day work.
The three-time defending A.L. Central champions understand the ups and downs of a 162-game schedule, and how important it is to stay level even when breaks aren't going their way.
There is way too much talent spread out across this roster for this downward trend to continue, and the Tigers hope the signs they showed in Oakland of breaking out of their funk carry over to this weekend's action.
What to watch for:
The Tigers will miss Felix Hernandez on their trip through Seattle, which comes as great news after King Felix's dominant 3-1 victory over the Angels on Wednesday.
However, there is still a very interesting matchup to be had on Friday night, as Tigers ace Justin Verlander (5-4, 4.04) tries to find some sort of consistency against Hasashi Iwakuma (3-1, 2.39).
Iwakuma has been lights-out at home, posting a 1.57 ERA with no walks and 18 K's in 23 innings pitched.
What they are saying about the Mariners:
New approach leads to great night for Felix Hernandez (Drayer's Mariners Blog)
M's to take it slow with Walker's return (MyNorthwest.com)
What they are saying about the Tigers:
Tigers GM discusses team's recent struggles (MLive.com)
Tigers confident Nathan can handle heat as closer (Official Site of the Tigers)
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