Kansas City @ Seattle preview
T-Mobile Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 6, 2010 ) Kansas City 1, Seattle 7
The Seattle Mariners certainly didn’t seem to dwell on how poorly they have done against Zack Greinke when they opened a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
The Mariners went straight at Greinke, pounding out 10 hits and six runs off the 2009 Cy Young Award winner in a 7-1 victory. Greinke had not allowed a run against Seattle in 37 consecutive innings, dating to April 14, 2008.
Bruce Chen (6-5, 4.74 ERA) will try to get the Royals back on track when he faces David Pauley (0-3, 3.38 ERA) on Saturday night.
Chone Figgins, who had been hitless in 21 at-bats against Greinke, drove in three runs on a two-run double and RBI single. Figgins is 9-for-16 in his last four games.
Ryan Langerhans fell a triple shy of the cycle and sent the first pitch he saw from Greinke over the wall in center field.
Seattle scored its most runs and earned its most lopsided victory since posting an 8-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on July 4. The Mariners had been swept by the Royals in a three-game set in early July.
Left-hander Luke French threw a career-best eight innings and allowed one run and nine hits in Friday’s victory.
Ichiro Suzuki has an 18-game hitting streak against Kansas City dating back to July 12, 2008. He is batting .370 in his career against the Royals, his best against any American League club.
Chen is 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA in five starts against Seattle. Suzuki is 9-for-19 (.474) against him all-time and 0-for-2 this season. Chen kept the Baltimore Orioles to three runs in a 5-4 victory last Sunday to stop a three-game losing streak.
Pauley will be seeking his first career victory. He is 0-6 in nine career starts and 17 overall appearances with a 6.71 ERA. The right-hander lasted just 2 2/3 innings and allowed four runs in a 9-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox on July 29.
Kansas City shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt will likely miss the rest of this series as he is in Miami with his wife awaiting the birth of their first child.
Royals right-hander Brian Bannister will be working out of the bullpen and miss at least two starts. Manager Ned Yost said the team will try to fix a flaw with Bannister’s pitching delivery.
Bannister, who has lost five consecutive decisions, will be replaced in the rotation by right-hander Bryan Bullington.
Seattle left-hander Erik Bedard had successful surgery on his left shoulder for the third consecutive year on Friday. The Ontario native never threw a pitch this season.