Take The Rangers To Win Series Opener
Mariners vs. Rangers, 8:05 ET
With the regular season winding down, I feel like I need to give a brief hat tip to the MLB schedule makers. I've been kind of critical of them because they have so few games on Thursdays and even some Mondays. However, this season they have set up the end of this regular season with a lot of good divisional matchups. Not everything worked out but getting the Mariners and Rangers to face each other right now is good baseball, and we are going to take a unit home in it.
My guess is that whoever wins this series makes the playoffs, and whoever loses will go home at the end of the year. The Mariners weren't really in the playoff conversation a few months ago. It wasn't like they were playing bad baseball, but they were essentially a .500 team. August came along and they started playing very well. They've assured themselves a winning season for the second straight year, but that really isn't enough now that they are this close to making the playoffs. After dealing with injuries early in the season, the Mariners are clicking at the right time. Tonight, they send Bryce Miller to the hill. He hasn't been quite as good on the road as he has been at home, but he's pitched pretty well this month in two of his three starts. The issue is that the Mariners have lost all three games that he has started. Miller has faced the Rangers just once this season and it was on the road. In that game he went just 2.1 innings and allowed seven earned runs. It seems that when he is on, he is very sharp, but when he is off, it is a complete disaster.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 17: Jarred Kelenic #10 of the Seattle Mariners at bat against the Minnesota Twins at T-Mobile Park on July 17, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
I actually feel kind of bad for the Rangers this season. I didn't think they would be this good, so I'll own up to them being one of the teams I was wrong about. I didn't think the signing of Nathan Eovaldi or Jacob deGrom would work out. deGrom was injured this season and shut down. Eovaldi was also injured but has been back now and was pitching very well for the Rangers this year. They traded for Max Scherzer at the deadline, and he also is now injured and out for the year. The hitting has really carried the team this year as well, but the pitching is better than expected. One of their rotational surprises is Dane Dunning and he takes the ball tonight. For the season, he has a 3.78 ERA but it is slightly above that in his home starts. He started September with one of his worst outings of the season as he allowed nine earned runs over 5.1 innings. He's adjusted and had a quality start and another five-inning outing with no earned runs allowed. He's faced the Mariners just once this season and he allowed just two earned runs over six innings.
This is obviously a huge series as they both are fighting for the division and the Wild Card spots. The good news for them is that Toronto is playing the Rays so one of the other teams vying for a Wild Card spot has a tough opponent while these two play each other. Tonight though is a game the Rangers will take. The pitching for the Rangers will come through in this one. If you want to take them through five innings, that's fine, but I think we should be okay with the full game and will play it that way.
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