Seattle Mariners Preparing For Crucial Pitching Matchups Against Los Angeles Dodgers
With 37 games left — the Seattle Mariners are playing for their season. The Mariners began this current road trip tied with the Houston Astros after an impressive nine-game homestead where they won a series against the Philadelphia Phillies and swept the New York Mets.
Since then, Seattle has been swept by the Detroit Tigers and lost a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and are now four games behind the Astros in the AL West.
The Mariners will conclude their nine-game road trip against the World Series-contending Los Angeles Dodgers starting on Monday at 7:10 p.m. PT and will need to at least walk away from the series with two games to come out of the road trip without catastrophe.
Luckily — Seattle will have some quality pitching to help it in that endeavor.
Aug. 19 (Monday) — Bryan Woo (Seattle) vs. Gavin Stone (LAD)
Woo has rattled off three consecutive quality starts of at least six innings pitched. Two of his starts saw him go seven innings (a career high). He also has allowed no runs and no free bases in two of them.
Stone has made signficiant improvements from his rookie year in 2023 to now and even threw a complete game on June 26. Since his nine-inning outing, he's had seven starts. None of them quality. He's gone over five innings just once and has allowed four or more earned runs four times.
Aug. 20 (Tuesday) — Bryce Miller (Seattle) vs. Walker Buehler (LAD)
There's an argument to be had that Seattle's best pitcher over the last month has been Miller. He hasn't given up a run or walked anybody in three of his last six starts. Five of his last six starts have been quality. In his last start on Aug. 15 — Miller pitched seven innings and had nine strikeouts while letting up just two hits and not giving up a free base.
Buehler has been dealing with an injury-plagued and inconsistent season. He spent nearly two months on the 15-day injured list from June 19 to Aug. 14. In his first outing on Aug. 14 against the Milwaukee Brewers — he pitched 3.1 innings and let up four runs (one earned) off three hits. He has two quality starts out of nine total appearances this season.
Aug. 21 (Wednesday) — Logan Gilbert (Seattle) vs. Jack Flaherty (LAD)
The last time Gilbert started — it was a pitching duel against the Pirates' rookie phenom Paul Skenes. Pittsburgh got to him a little bit for four runs (three earned) in 6.1 innings pitched on Aug. 16. In the same breath, Gilbert has struck out 19 batters in his last three starts.
Flaherty was acquired by Los Angeles from Detroit in July 30. He's made three starts for the Dodgers since. He's made just one quality start but has struck out 24 batters since he made his way to Dodger Stadium.
The Mariners need to win this series to keep their postseason hopes afloat. And it looks like, for at least two of the games, they're in favorable situations to do it.
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