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The New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners both enter Wednesday with winning records, but down more than five games in their respective division races and in need of a win in Seattle.
New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners (-135, 7.5)
Clarke Schmidt gets the start for the Yankees and has been the weak link in their rotation, posting a 5.58 ERA with 3.2 walks and 1.4 home runs per nine innings allowed overall this season, with his ERA ballooning to 7.27 in his four road starts.
In his four road starts this season, Schmidt has yet to go deeper than five innings in any of them with at least three runs allowed in three of the four. He is also facing a Mariners lineup that has been hitting better recently.
After the Mariners batted .219 with 4.3 runs per game in April, the team entered Tuesday averaging over 4.8 runs per game and hitting .241 in May.
The recent surge by the Yankees’ offense has been even larger though, leading the league in runs per game since Aaron Judge’s return on May 9, scoring 5.8 runs per game in the 20 games since his return with an MLB-best 38 home runs in that span.
Mariners starter George Kirby will look to keep the Yankees in the yard on Wednesday. The ball is in play often when he takes the mound with his 0.9 walks per nine innings being the best mark for any pitcher with at least four starts this season.
Kirby also is getting just 7.3 strikeouts per nine innings, meaning he needs to induce soft contact to be effective and enters Wednesday having allowed six home runs across his past five starts with a 3.43 ERA overall this season.
While both bullpens have been among the best in baseball — the Yankees enter Tuesday leading the league in bullpen ERA and the Mariners are fifth in that category — both are dealing with injuries.
The Mariners are still without Penn Murfee and Andres Munoz, who both made 64 appearances last season with ERAs below 3.00 while the Yankees are without Ian Hamilton, who has a 1.23 ERA with 30 strikeouts across 22 innings this season.
With a pair of offenses swinging hot bats and a pair of starting pitchers giving up plenty of contact, there will be offensive fireworks in Wednesday’s series finale.
The Play: Yankees vs. Mariners Over 7.5