Seattle @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 2, 2010 ) Texas 3, Seattle 1
The Seattle Mariners were expected to contend for the AL West title this year.
They had a rotation that consisted of Cy Young-caliber pitchers Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, and were hoping Erik Bedard would rejoin it at some point during the season. And the offense added Chone Figgins and Milton Bradley over the offseason.
But there haven’t been any positives coming out of the Mariners clubhouse lately. Bradley left the team for two weeks to deal with his issues and last week brought about the retirement of their best player in franchise history - Ken Griffey Jr.
Still, Seattle will try and get back to a more respectable record when it opens a four-game series against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers on Monday night. The Mariners will go with the left-handed Lee, while the Rangers counter with right-hander Scott Feldman.
Lee is coming off two impressive games in which he pitched eight innings. In his last start against the Minnesota Twins, Lee allowed one run on five hits with eight strikeouts. Prior to that, he held the Angels to three runs and four hits with 10 strikeouts.
Lee pitched well against the Rangers when he made his season debut on April 30, throwing seven scoreless innings and giving up only three hits. Still, the Mariners lost that game, 2-0.
Offensively, the Mariners are coming off a game in which they had built a 3-1 lead only to see the pitching staff give it away. Eight of the nine starters recorded a hit, highlighted by Ichiro Suzuki’s 2-for-3 outing with two walks and an RBI.
Texas' offense, meanwhile, has come to life of late. Even though they ended up losing, the Rangers scored five runs on Sunday and have plated five or more runs in five of their past six games.
Josh Hamilton recorded a pinch-hit RBI single and veteran catcher Matt Treanor had a pair of home runs. With those two blasts, Treanor has already set a career-high with five home runs this season.
Vladimir Guerrero also had a multi-hit game with a single and a double, and Elvis Andrus extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an infield single.
The Rangers might need all the offense they can get, as Feldman has struggled this season. Feldman has allowed at least four runs in his past six outings, including when he allowed five runs on eight hits to the Chicago White Sox in his last start on Wednesday.
But, in his lone start against the Mariners earlier this season on April 11, Feldman allowed two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over seven innings to lead the Rangers to a 9-2 victory.
Texas is 5-1 against Seattle so far this season and has not lost the season series since 2007.