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The Rays will head to Seattle to take on the Mariners who have lost 25 of their last 40 games and are 63-77 on the year. Like the Rays the Mariners are having difficulty hitting with runners in scoring position hitting just .100 (5 for 50) over their last 5 games.
The Rays caught a break as the Mariners have elected to skip Felix Hernandez who left his start Monday with a stiff back. On Friday at 10:10 p.m. Alex Cobb (8-3, 2.82 ERA) will face Hisashi Iwakuma (12-6, 2.92 ERA), Saturday at 9:10 p.m Chris Archer (8-6, 3.14 ERA) will take on left hander James Paxton making his major league debut. On Sunday at 4:10 p.m. Matt Moore (15-3, 3.27 ERA) will tak eon Erasmo Ramirez (5-1, 5.07 ERA).
The Bullpen
The Mariners bullpen leads all of major league baseball in K/9 at 9.74. Danny Farquhar ranks 3rd (13.50), Oliver Perez ranks 7th at 12.73, and Charlie Furbush ranks 12th at 11.62.
Carter Capps has inherited 22 runners and only allowed 2 to score giving him the 4th best strand rate at 90.9% (minimum 20 inherited runners).
The data below represents the Mariners bullpen in the 2nd half:
| Name | W | L | SV | ERA | FIP | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | LOB% | GB% | HR/FB |
| Mariners | 4 | 9 | 17 | 4.32 | 3.62 | 146 | 9.7 | 3.7 | 71.4% | 44.2% | 10.7% |
| Danny Farquhar | 0 | 2 | 12 | 1.88 | 0.91 | 24 | 13.5 | 2.6 | 73.7% | 36.2% | 0.0% |
| Charlie Furbush | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.41 | 2.72 | 18.2 | 9.6 | 2.9 | 70.5% | 35.6% | 5.0% |
| Carter Capps | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.35 | 2.39 | 15.1 | 9.4 | 1.8 | 76.9% | 51.2% | 11.1% |
| Lucas Luetge | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.06 | 3.38 | 17.2 | 6.1 | 4.1 | 76.0% | 49.0% | 0.0% |
| Erasmo Ramirez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 | 1.84 | 1.2 | 5.4 | 0.0 | 66.7% | 57.1% | 0.0% |
| Tom Wilhelmsen | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6.43 | 4.04 | 7 | 5.1 | 6.4 | 64.3% | 52.2% | 0.0% |
| Bobby LaFromboise | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81.00 | 6.04 | 0.1 | 27.0 | 27.0 | 0.0% | 33.3% | 0.0% |
| Oliver Perez | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10.97 | 4.45 | 10.2 | 13.5 | 5.1 | 56.0% | 31.4% | 11.8% |
| Chance Ruffin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5.40 | 7.24 | 1.2 | 16.2 | 0.0 | 100.0% | 33.3% | 50.0% |
| Hector Noesi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.80 | 11.44 | 3.1 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 62.5% | 27.3% | 33.3% |
| Brandon Maurer | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6.64 | 5.15 | 20.1 | 8.0 | 2.7 | 68.0% | 50.0% | 15.4% |
| Yoervis Medina | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.84 | 4.89 | 25.1 | 10.0 | 5.7 | 92.1% | 48.3% | 19.0% |
The Offense
Heading into yesterday's game against the Kansas City Royals the Mariners were struggling on their road trip hitting just .230 (55 for 239) scoring just 23 runs.
The data below represents the Mariners offense in the 2nd half:
| Name | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI | BB% | K% |
| Mike Zunino | 29 | 0.273 | 0.448 | 0.455 | 0.405 | 159 | 1 | 3 | 24.1% | 27.6% |
| Dustin Ackley | 133 | 0.328 | 0.356 | 0.480 | 0.362 | 130 | 2 | 16 | 4.5% | 16.5% |
| Michael Saunders | 128 | 0.250 | 0.359 | 0.417 | 0.343 | 117 | 4 | 15 | 14.1% | 22.7% |
| Kyle Seager | 189 | 0.257 | 0.339 | 0.425 | 0.338 | 113 | 7 | 20 | 9.0% | 19.0% |
| Kendrys Morales | 182 | 0.277 | 0.335 | 0.404 | 0.325 | 104 | 4 | 17 | 8.2% | 18.1% |
| Brad Miller | 199 | 0.266 | 0.317 | 0.413 | 0.320 | 101 | 5 | 22 | 6.5% | 12.6% |
| Justin Smoak | 170 | 0.216 | 0.312 | 0.372 | 0.306 | 92 | 6 | 13 | 12.4% | 25.9% |
| Franklin Gutierrez | 30 | 0.207 | 0.233 | 0.448 | 0.294 | 83 | 2 | 4 | 3.3% | 20.0% |
| Raul Ibanez | 135 | 0.225 | 0.311 | 0.317 | 0.286 | 78 | 1 | 4 | 11.1% | 27.4% |
| Humberto Quintero | 68 | 0.238 | 0.273 | 0.349 | 0.275 | 70 | 2 | 4 | 4.4% | 19.1% |
| Nick Franklin | 164 | 0.176 | 0.250 | 0.345 | 0.264 | 63 | 6 | 23 | 9.1% | 34.1% |
| Abraham Almonte | 17 | 0.235 | 0.235 | 0.294 | 0.231 | 40 | 0 | 2 | 0.0% | 35.3% |
| Brendan Ryan | 32 | 0.172 | 0.250 | 0.241 | 0.227 | 37 | 0 | 4 | 9.4% | 15.6% |
| Endy Chavez | 41 | 0.225 | 0.244 | 0.250 | 0.221 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 2.4% | 4.9% |
| Michael Morse | 80 | 0.158 | 0.200 | 0.289 | 0.217 | 30 | 2 | 4 | 5.0% | 28.8% |
| Henry Blanco | 66 | 0.117 | 0.197 | 0.250 | 0.206 | 22 | 2 | 9 | 7.6% | 24.2% |
Starting Pitchers
Hisashi Iwakuma
Iwakuma ranks 5th in the American League with a 2.92 ERA, 4th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.69) and 2nd in WHIP (1.02). Over his last 5 starts he has posted a record of 2-1 with a 3.48 ERA. He has worked 33.2 innings allowing 33 hits striking out 29 and walking 8.
He last faced the Rays on July 20th of last season taking a no decision after allowing 2R/ER on 6 hits striking out 7 and walking 1.
James Paxton
Paxton is making his major league debut. He was the 87th ranked prospect on Baseball America's Top 100 prospect list prior to the season. He went 8-11 with a 4.48 ERA with a strikeout rate of 8.1 K/9 and a walk rate of 3.6 BB/9.
Erasmo Ramirez
Over his last 5 starts Ramirez has posted a record of 2-1 with a 3.48 ERA. He has worked 31 innings allowing 30 hits striking out 24 and walking 9. He has allowed 6 home runs in that span of time.
He last faced the Rays back on August 13th at Tropicana Field and allowed 4R/ER on 7 hits in 5.1 innings earning the victory in a 5-4 Mariners win.