The Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays are playing afternoon baseball on Wednesday and the matchup is from Safeco Field at 3:40 pm ET and is streaming online from MLB.com and has Jake Odorizzi against Brandon Maurer and the matchup comes after Fernando Rodney totally wanted a Hisashi Iwakuma gem against David Price and blew the save on Tuesday and now the M's will try again before a road trip.
The Mariners have finally pulled over .500 and Rodney had to blow things with a terrible performance after coming in up 1-0 and now the team has to try and salvage the last game of the series. The Mariners have played well in this latest stretch and it helped erase the damage of an eight game losing streak, but if Rodney keeps blowing games like he has been, the team could be in trouble the rest of the way and especially in the bullpen.
The Mariners pulled out the game against the Rays with Felix Hernandez on the mound and that was the first time he pitched against the team since throwing his perfect game a couple years ago and now they have the chance to bounce back after the heartbreaking loss. The Mariners have been getting some nice play from Robinson Cano despite the fact that he has one home run, while Dustin Ackley and Justin Smoak have looked improved and now the team is hoping that they can keep it up for the rest of the season.
The Mariners have been able to hang in the division all season despite three of their main pitchers going on the DL and now they are second behind the A's and on this next road trip they will play against the Minnesota Twins and another division rival in the Texas Rangers. The Mariners have been getting some great contributions from young players around Cano, including Stefen Romero and Ackley and while Brad Miller has been off to a slow start, he has great talent at shortstop and he is expected to bounce back along with Kyle Seager.
The Mariners are expecting to get back their two young stars in Taijuan Walker and James Paxton soon and that will give the rotation some more depth behind Hernandez and Iwakuma, who have been two of the best in baseball. The team is ranked 12th in runs and 21st in slugging and they are also 12th in ERA and they have been hanging tight while their players are on the mend. The Mariners open the series with the Twins on the road next on Friday at Target Field after a rest day and they may have Michael Sunders back for that game and it will be Chris Young and his 3-0 record and tall frame on the mound for the M's.
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