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Ok. Well. Here's the thing. J.A. Happ is a fly ball left-handed pitcher. He was acquired in part because that weakness is well offset by Safeco's cavernous dimensions and marine-layered air. Well the last two games there have been 12 home runs hit in Safeco. It's going to be in the 80's again for the afternoon game. The Tigers have a team wRC+ of 119 against left-handed pitchers. I like J.A. Happ more than I thought I would but this is another game where the Mariners are probably going to have to score 6+ runs to win.
The good news? Anibal Sanchez has been extremely and weirdly home run prone this year. Now I'm not saying he's giving up dingers like, say, Hisashi Iwakuma (do NOT look up his home run numbers. Do not.) but where Sanchez set a career low in home runs in 2014 he's now giving them up at a career high rate in 2015.
The team will need to take advantage of that weakness without Logan Morrison, who is getting the day off due to an excess of grinding, per Divish. Mark Trumbo at 1st, and a fairly, moderately, almost acceptable if you squint outfield defense Ackley-Jackson-Smith.
Win ya nerds.
Game info
- Tigers @ Mariners, 12:40 PST, Safeco Field
- TV: ROOT, Radio, 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV