Seattle (34-30) at Tampa Bay (30-32)
When: Wednesday, June 15th 2016
Where: Tropicana Field, St Petersburg, FL
Time: 7:10 ET | TV: ROOT-Northwest, SunSports
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The Seattle Mariners continue to fade away from the Texas Rangers while the Tampa Bay Rays are making a move toward the .500 mark. The two teams will meet in the second game of their three-game series on Wednesday. Tampa’s Evan Longoria continued his hot play with a game-tying three-run homer in the 7th inning in the Rays 8-7 victory of Seattle on Tuesday. The home run was the seventh in his last 10 games for Longoria, who is hitting .349 in June with 14 RBIs. The Mariners have lost three-straight by a combined four runs as their bullpen continues to get rocked. Starter Taijuan Walker was forced out in the fourth inning with a foot injury, but is hoping to make his next start on Sunday. Tampa Bay RF Steven Souza Jr. left Tuesday’s game with soreness in his left hip and is day-to-day. Seattle 2B Robinson Cano continues his resurgent season and is 12-for-31 over the last seven games.
Pitchers: Mariners – Nathan Karns (5-2, 4.09 ERA) | Rays – Drew Smyly (2-7, 4.94)
The Mariners will send Nate Karns to the mound and the big righty will look to get his control back. He has issued a total of 10 walks in 8.1 innings over his last two starts. Karns was hit for seven runs at Texas in the first of those outings on June 4th but minimized the damage to one run and two hits in 4.1 innings against Cleveland on Thursday. Karns spent 2014 and 2015 with Tampa Bay before heading to the Mariners in a trade over the winter and will be making his first start against his former team.
Drew Smyly is another guy who needs a confidence boost. He was skipped over in his last start to regroup after getting rocked in his previous three turns. Smyly allowed a total of 17 runs and 25 hits in 15 innings over those three outings while surrendering five home runs. He also had a rough outing at Seattle on May 10th, when he was ripped for six runs on 10 hits in five innings to suffer the loss.
Both pitchers are struggling with their confidence and these teams scored 15 runs last night against better hurlers. I expect the offense to continue tonight, so I’ll take the over.
Pick: Over 8 -110
