Seattle @ Tampa Bay preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 19, 2011 ) Seattle 2, Tampa Bay 3

THE STORY: The Tampa Bay Rays have a tough hill to climb to get back into the playoff chase. But they are not going away easily, as evidenced by their comeback victory against Felix Hernandez on Friday. The Rays stand nine games back in the American League East and 8 ½ out in the wild-card race despite winning eight of 10 to reach a season-high 11 games over .500. Jeremy Hellickson will try to build on that by winning his third game this season against the visiting Seattle Mariners on Saturday night. The Rays have won five straight at home. The Mariners are 21-38 on the road.

TV: 7:10 p.m. EST; ROOT (Seattle), SunSports (Tampa Bay).

PITCHING MATCHUP: Mariners LH Charlie Furbush (3-4, 4.01 ERA) vs. Rays RH Jeremy Hellickson (10-8, 3.22 ERA).

Furbush has won two of his three starts with the Mariners. The rookie beat Boston on Sunday, allowing four hits and one run over seven innings. Furbush pitched 3 2/3 innings against the Rays in his major league debut May 23 to get a win when he was with Detroit. He has thrown 5 1/3 innings against Tampa Bay, allowing just three hits and one run – a Sean Rodriguez homer.

Hellickson has won three of four starts. He had gone eight straight outings allowing three runs or less before giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Yankees last Saturday. Hellickson has pitched 14 1/3 innings against Seattle this season, allowing two earned runs and eight hits combined. Ichiro Suzuki is 0-for-6 against Hellickson.

ABOUT THE MARINERS (53-70): Seattle manager Eric Wedge decided to give second baseman Dustin Ackley a day off Friday and it may have cost him the game. Kyle Seager, who has been playing third base, started at second and Adam Kennedy had a rough day in the field at third base. Ackley is likely to be back in the lineup Saturday after going 1-for-10 in the last series. Mike Carp is riding an 18-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 25 of his last 27. Casper Wells was right back in the lineup after being hit on the tip of the nose by a pitch Wednesday. He went 1-for-4.

ABOUT THE RAYS (67-56): Johnny Damon still has decent speed at 37 and his legs helped win the Rays a game they probably shouldn’t have Friday. He took advantage of Kennedy’s nonchalant play to leg out an infield hit, the 2,691st of his career, with two outs to keep the eighth-inning rally alive. Damon is 5-for-14 his last three games. Evan Longoria knocked in the tying run to give him 15 RBIs in the last 14 games and Ben Zobrist had the winning RBI. Zobrist is 7-for-15 the last four games. B.J. Upton has also picked it up with six hits in his last 12 at bats.

FINAL PITCH: The Mariners placed infielder Jack Wilson, who was 10-for-24 in his last seven games, on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised left heel Friday. Shortstop Brendan Ryan was activated from the DL.