Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners Series Preview

The Rangers are headed to Seattle for a final four game series between the two teams. They’ll have two night games followed by two afternoon games.

Kyle Cody will make his first Major League start on Friday — so far this year he has made three relief appearances. In those three appearances, he’s pitched 4.1 scoreless innings with six strikeouts and just one hit and three walks. He’s faced the Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched one inning in each of his first two appearances, but in his most recent outing against the Dodgers on August 29, he went 2.1, struck out three and walked two. He threw 39 pitches in that outing and will apparently be on a “loose limit” of three innings or 50 pitches.

Yusei Kikuchi will take the mound for Seattle. He’s faced the Rangers twice in his career, both last season. In those two starts he went six innings combined and gave up three runs on six hits and three strikeouts. The 29-year-old has made five starts this season, going 1-2 in 25 innings with a 6.12 ERA and 1.40 WHIP.

On Saturday’s game, Kyle Gibson will face the Mariners for a second time this season. His last outing against them in mid-August he gave up four runs in 4.1 innings pitches. Gibson is .500 in 11 career games against the M’s, 3.96 ERA with a 1.43 WHIP in 63.2 innings.

Justus Sheffield pitched in the Mariners 10-1 win against the Rangers on August 22, holding Texas to just the one run in six innings. Between the two starts against the Rangers, Sheffield pitched 4.2 innings against the Angels and gave up six runs on four hits and four walks and six strikeouts, Seattle went on to lose that game 16-3.

Jordan Lyles is scheduled to start Sunday’s game, it’ll be interesting to see if he gets an opener again (and to that if they’ll give an opener to Allard who I think could really benefit from that.) This will be Lyles third start against Seattle this season, he’s gone 0-1 in nine innings and given up 12 runs on 17 hits and four walks with six strikeouts in those two starts. His career ERA against Seattle is 6.62 with a 1.44 WHIP.

Justin Dunn has two wins this year, both of which against Texas. In 12 innings, he’s given up just two runs on eight hits and four walks, striking out eight. He has a 1.50 ERA and 1.00 WHIP against the Rangers.

Kolby Allard will be the starter in the finale, Allard has faced Seattle twice now, once last year and just a couple weeks ago. In the outing this year, he gave up four runs on five hits and two walks in just 0.2 innings.

Finally, Marco Gonzales, whom the Rangers beat 4-2 on August 11, will make his second start against Texas this season. In that first game he went five innings giving up four runs on seven hits and a walk. In his last start, against the Angels, he pitched nine innings giving up just one run on four hits and a walk.