Seattle (51-48) at Pittsburgh (51-48)
When: Wednesday, July 27th 2016
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 7:05 ET | TV: ROOT (Seattle, Pittsburgh)
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The Seattle Mariners look to continue their dominant interleague play when they try and sweep a two-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. Seattle owns a major league-best 10-3 record against the other league after last night’s 7-4 victory over the Pirates. Kyle Seager hit his second homer in three games and is 7-for-19 with four RBIs in his last five games. Seattle has won five of seven to move within six games of American League West-leading Texas and 4.5 from the Wild Card. The Pirates are still eight games behind the Cubs in the NL Central, but just 2.5 games out of the NL Wild Card. Gregory Polanco homered among his season-high four hits Tuesday to improve to 9-for-24 with four RBIs in his last six games, but fellow outfielder Andrew McCutchen is just 4-for-29 with eight strikeouts in his last seven. Pirates 1B John Jaso is hitless in six of his last eight games, including 0-for-9 in his last three.
Pitchers: Mariners – James Paxton (3-4, 4.18 ERA) | Pirates – Gerrit Cole (5-6, 2.99)
James Paxton gets his 11th start of the season and he’s coming off probably his best start. Paxton struck out nine Blues Jays on Friday and improved to 2-1 in his last four starts. The British Columbia native allowed a solo homer among three hits in seven innings of a 2-1 victory. Paxton has pitched well on the road, posting a 2-2 mark while his ERA (3.62) away from home is a bit more than a half-run better than his season average.
Gerrit Cole rebounded from a rough outing in Washington and held the Phillies to one run over six innings while striking out seven, but suffered the loss due to lack of run support. The Pirates have actually been shut-out in Cole’s last two turns and he’s 0-3 with a 3.96 ERA in his last five starts. Cole will be making his first career start against Seattle and he is 1-3 with a 2.89 ERA at home this season.
Seattle has won four of five and their bats are starting to get hot again. Paxton has been pretty decent in July outside of one start against Houston, and the Astros are hitting everyone right now. Pittsburgh has only scored eight runs in Cole’s last five starts. Seattle will put together just enough offense to pull out a low-scoring victory tonight and improve to 11-3 in interleague play.
Pick: Mariners +140
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