Series Preview: Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners

Seattle: 11-11
Texas: 10-12

Well that's not exactly how we drew it up, but winning a series on the road is fine by me. After all, what kind of ponce takes wins on the road for granted? Even if a win seems all but assured, perhaps even down to the last few seconds, we should know better than to assume that things will turn up aces once the dust settles. 

Also helping to take the sting out of the first game loss for me is that the Mariners prevailed in the series despite not playing overwhelmingly well. While Texas is no great shakes, the Mariners cannot afford to skate by much longer. They danced through April despite their injury woes thanks in part to a rather easy schedule, but they must stop dropping games to divisional foes. Now is the time for the 2010 team that we hoped for to show up.

Fri Apr 30, 19:10: Cliff Lee* vs. Colby Lewis

Sat May 1, 12:10: Felix Hernandez vs. Matt Harrison*

Sun May 2, 13:10: Doug Fister vs. C.J. Wilson*

Cliff Lee! Yay!

Note that both Colby Lewis and C.J. Wilson have very small samples to draw from since only data accumulated in the rotation is considered. Still, this is a series that the Mariners should really go into looking to work counts. Texas' bullpen isn't a gigantic strength, especially in the 9th inning, and runs will be tougher to come by anyways playing in Safeco. The Mariners drew five walks in their last game, so hopefully they can bring that mindset to this entire series. It does wonders for giving them run-scoring opportunities.

The Rangers can throw Justin Smoak, David Murphy and Josh Hamilton from the left-side against Felix and Fister this weekend. Also Julio Borbon, but he cannot hit so who cares? Felix can have problems with lefty hitters and falling behind to power hitting lefties in Safeco with Felix's typical fastball preference attitude might be trouble. Change ups Felix, change ups.

It would nice to see Fister drop his all fastball, all the time strategy against the Rangers who can hit the fastball but fare worse against change ups and curves. Then again, it would just be nice to see Fister continue his run of good pitching so whatever works. I just fear he's going to need a different approach for this lineup and I really like his curve.

With Nelson Cruz out of the lineup, I'm not sure if the Rangers are going to be able to avoid using all three of their left-handed outfielders tonight against Cliff Lee which would help him get a softer landing in Seattle.