New York Yankees: Seattle Mariners vs. Yankees series preview

Tonight the New York Yankees could be entering a pivotal series with the Seattle Mariners; both teams are battling for a wild card berth. Unfortunately, the Yankees and the Mariners are both coming off losses for a series sweep. The Yankees won two of three from the Orioles, and Seattle took two of three from the Rays.

The Yankees are in third place 58-49, six games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. They are 7-3 in their last ten games. The Mariners are in third place in the AL West. They are 58-51, going 5-5 in their last 10 games, 7 1/2 game behind the Houston Astros.

The Yankees last met up with the Mariners in Seattle about a month ago. The Yankees won the series taking two of the three games. Since then, the Yankees have acquired Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo, who give the Yankee lineup a totally different look.

The Mariners were buyers before the trade deadline also. They picked up former Yankee pitcher  Asher Wojciechowski, SS Edwin Arroyo, RHP Diego Castillo, and RHP Joaquin Tejada. This is a series that the pitching of both teams will probably decide. The Yankees are without ace Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber, and Domingo German. The Mariners have their pitchers lined up for the four-game series, but the Yankees may be relegated to a bullpen game in game two. The Yankees only have two regular pitchers available; they have just pitched in the last two games and will not be available for this series.

Tonight, August 5, 7:05 pm:

Tonight Nestor Cortes Jr. will take Domingo German’s normal spit in the rotation. Cortez has been very successful for the Yankees. He is coming off a 10 inning win against the Rays when he pitched a season-high 79 pitches. Overall as a starter and reliever, he has an ERA of 1.93 across 32.2 innings of work. 6 Mariners have had at-bats against Cortes, none getting a hit.

He will face the new Mariners pitcher Tyler Anderson who is 5-8, ERA 4.39 in 19 starts. In his first game with the Mariners, he allowed three runs in 5.1 innings against the Texas Rangers. Anthony Rizzo has faced Anderson 18 times with a .389 batting average off of him. Joey Gallo has only faced him once and homered off of him.

Friday, August 6, 7:05 pm:

The Yankees have not announced a starter for this game, because as of now, they don’t have one. They could surprise us with Deivi Garcia or another minor leaguer, but it is more likely that they will patch a game together out of the bullpen.

Whoever the Yankee pitcher is, he will face Marco Gonzales. a lefty that is 3-5 with an ERA of 5.15. Gonzales has pitched better lately. He has only faced the Yankees twice. In 2019, he held them to just one run in six innings. However, the year before, the Yankees held him up for six runs. Both Rougie Odor and Joey Gallo have had their way with Gonzales; both have averages over .333 in 41 at-bats.

Saturday, August 7, 1:05 pm:
The new Yankee acquisition Andrew Heaney will start his second game as a Yankee on Saturday afternoon. He bombed out pretty badly in his first start. He gave up four home runs in the first two innings of his 4 inning game. He is 6-6 with an ERA of 5.42. Heaney will have trouble navigating four Mariners that all have batting averages of .400 against him.
Heaney will face the Mariners, Chris Flexen, a righty that is 10-5 with an ERA of 3.75 and 75 strikeouts in 20 games. He is not a strike-out pitcher but relies on ground ball outs. He is coming off his 10th win of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays. DJ LeMahieu is the only Yankee that has been successful off of him, going .667 in three at-bats.

Sunday, August 8, 1:05 pm:

Luis Gil will get his second start since being brought up from the RailRiders. In his first start, he was masterful, going six innings of scoreless ball. He is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA. However, no Mariner has seen him pitch except via video.

Gil will face Yusei Kikuchi, who was an All-Star this year. The lefty is 7-6 with an ERA of 3.89 and an impressive 129 strikeouts. The Yankees got 5 runs off him in their first meeting this season in just two innings, he recovered the rest of the way, but the damage had already been done.

Note: All of the games will be broadcast on the YES Network and ROORNW in the northwest. Saturday’s game will also be broadcast nationally on MLBN out of market.