New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners: Series Preview

The weekend series in St. Louis turned into a horror show in a few different ways. Friday saw them lose the game after taking a lead into the eighth. Saturday saw their offense get completely held in check. Sunday saw the offense perform pretty well, but their pitching ended up having a bad day, as the Cardinals completed a sweep.

It was frustrating, but it’s over now. Next up is a visit to Seattle as the Yankees’ road trip continues. The Mariners took two out of three just last week when they came to the Bronx. The two losses were also frustrating ones, in what’s been a recent theme for the Yankees. However, every new game is a chance to change that. Let’s take a look at the pitching matchups we’ll see over the next couple days.

Monday: Jameson Taillon vs. Logan Gilbert (10:10 PM ET)

A rematch from the series last week in New York, Taillon will get the ball in the opener. He was not great, allowing six runs (five earned) in 4.2 innings. Uncharacteristically, he walked four batters, when limiting walks had been his main strong suit so far this season. The performance was a dip after he showed signs of starting to turn things around in a couple of his previous starts.

Taillon’s opponent will again be Gilbert, who the Yankees got to for six runs in 5.1 innings, giving him arguably his worst start of the season so far. Gilbert’s been on a bit of a down note in general recently. He has a 4.38 ERA and a 4.94 FIP since June 19th.

Tuesday: Gerrit Cole vs. Luis Castillo (10:10 PM ET)

In another rematch, Cole will be looking to improve on a nightmare start his last time out. The Mariners smacked the ace around for six runs on three home runs in the first inning, basically dooming the Yankees before they even got the chance to bat. The weird thing about the start is that if he had basically only been half as bad as he was in the first inning, it would been perfectly solid in the end. After that horror show, Cole only ended up allowing two more runners to reach base and got through six innings.

Meanwhile, the Yankees scrapped together a couple runs off Castillo, but not enough to overcome the massive hole they fell into. By the end of his day, the Yankees had tagged Castillo for three runs on five hits and three walks in 6.2 innings.

Wednesday: Nestor Cortes vs. Robbie Ray (4:10 PM ET)

The lone pitching battle we didn’t see when these two first met, Cortes will look to keep his good run going in Seattle. Since that late-May/June run where he had struggled a bit, Cortes has bounced back and has a 1.93 ERA in 23.1 innings over his last four starts. The Yankees have been a bit cautious with him as he nears his career-high innings total, but the results have been there. A former Mariner himself, Cortes had a two-run, five inning effort against Seattle last season.

The reigning Cy Young Award-winner Ray hasn’t been great this season and has an ERA over six in his last four starts. The Yankees faced the Cy-winning version of him three times last year, and had success, OPSing .947 as a team, as he put up a 6.60 ERA in 15 innings.