First of a six-game road trip against two division rivals. I'm setting the bar at 2.5 wins. Do you take the over or the under?
SEATTLE MARINERS TEXAS RANGERS
Ichiro RF Soriano 2B
Reed CF Blalock 3B
Beltre 3B Young SS
Sexson 1B Teixeira 1B
Boone 2B Dellucci DH
Ibanez DH Mench LF
Winn LF Matthews Jr. RF
Olivo C Barajas C
Valdez SS Nix CF
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Pineiro (1-1, 6.39) Drese (2-1, 6.39)
The Mariners hammered Drese for six runs in five innings earlier this season. The entire lineup has had good success against him in the past, collecting 49 hits in 124 total at bats (.395). As a contact pitcher, Drese's key to success is keeping the ball on the ground, which he does better than nearly every other pitcher in baseball, so the bats will need to hit a lot of balls hard enough to get through the infield in order to get on the board. As for Pineiro, he's looking to build off a decent seven innings against Oakland last week. It'll be interesting to see if he comes out throwing his curveball more often than he did the last time he was on the mound.
LET'S GO MARINERS!!