The Mariners are opening the second half of the season like a house on fire, winning three-straight games in a road-series sweep of the Chicago White Sox, concluding in a 7-6 victory on Sunday. The team now hops on the plane to visit the Astros. The Mariners are 6-1 in their last seven road games.
Ariel Miranda gets the starting pitching duties for Seattle to kick off the series, and he’s hoping the Mariners’ momentum would rub off of him, as he eyes his first win in three starts against the Astros this year. So far this season, Miranda is 7-4 with a 4.15 ERA in 18 total starts.
Ben Gamel has been solid at the plate in the White Sox series, wherein he went 4-for-12 in three games. Kyle Seager, meanwhile, appears to have a good All-Star break rest, as he’s had two homers in that series. Seager is 5-for-16 in his career against Houston’s starter tonight, Lance McCullers Jr.
The Astros closed out the three-game series at home against the Minnesota Twins with a 5-3 win on Sunday, taking two games in the homestand. And now they’d like to show Seattle who the boss again, as the Astros eye the suddenly surging Mariners.
Houston is 7-3 in their last 10 meetings with the Mariners and 7-3 in the last 10 in this matchup when the Astros are at home.
Toeing the rubber for Houston is the aforementioned McCullers, who is 7-2 with a 3.05 ERA in 16 starts this season. That includes his humbling down of Seattle in a 5-2 road win on Jun. 24 in which he tossed five innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits with eight strikeouts. McCullers, however, wasn’t as sharp in his last start, giving up five earned runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings of a 7-4 loss in the Toronto Blue Jays’ nest.
Jose Altuve remains as dependable on the plate as he was in the first half, as evidenced by his 5-for-12 line in the Minnesota series, which includes a homer and a pair of doubles.
