Seattle’s postseason hopes were all but extinguished when it went 19-18 over the past five weeks but the tiny flame that still burns makes
the Mariners‘ final three-game road series
Willie McCovey Jersey , which begins Friday against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park, even more important.The Mariners will send right-hander Erasmo
Ramirez (2-3, 5.65 ERA) to the mound for the series opener while Texas will
counter with right-hander Ariel Jurado (3-5, 7.01).Seattle travels north from
the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex after a 9-0 victory over defending World Series
champion Houston on Wednesday that allowed the Mariners to take two of three
games from the Astros.Article continues below ...The nine-run winning margin was
the biggest of the season for Seattle, a squad that has specialized in close
wins and still has a run differential of minus-38 despite being 16 games over
.500.They are 7 1/2 games behind Oakland for the final wild card spot with 10
games to play. Seattle went 7-2 in Houston this season.“We’ve played well here
all year,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Our guys enjoy coming in here,
they swing the bats well here. I think a few of our guys get energized here for
whatever reason. One of our goals was to play better against them, and we
certainly have. It’s nice coming in here and beating them, no doubt.”The
Mariners (84-68) have clinched a winning season, and 2018 is only the third time
in franchise history that Seattle was never under .500 for the entire campaign.
The Mariners were exactly .500 three times this year (at 1-1, 3-3 and 4-4) but
never fell under the break-even line. The only other seasons Seattle has been
.500 or better every day of the season were 1996 and 2001.Texas heads into its
final home series of the season after being swept by Tampa Bay earlier in the
week, including Wednesday afternoon’s 9-3 rout. At least Texas found home plate
in the series finale — it was shut out the first two games of the set and was
outscored 16-3 over the three games with the Rays.The Rangers are
64-88
http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-mel-ott-jersey , have lost 16 of their last 22 games, and are headed for their second straight
losing campaign. Texas admitted early in the season that it was in a rebuilding
mode and would use younger players throughout the second half of the year to
hone their skills for the future.“We will try to get some of the younger guys in
the lineup and continue to find at-bats for those guys,” Texas manager Jeff
Banister said. “I still believe, thinking about the vision of moving forward,
every at-bat, every pitch, every play for some of these young guys are going to
be valuable going forward for this team next year. Every experience is valuable
experience.”Multiple sources are reporting that the Rangers are contemplating
replacing Banister after the season, even though he is under contract for 2019.
The Rangers exercised the option they held on him for next season shortly after
the 2017 season ended. Those same reports also said that no final decision about
changing managers has been made.Ramirez will make his ninth start of the season
Friday, his seventh since being activated from the disabled list Aug. 12 after a
right teres major strain. He had a no-decision in his most recent start, a 6-5
Mariners victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.Ramirez is making his
17th career appearance (eight starts) against the Rangers and is 0-2 with one
save and 6.42 ERA versus Texas.The 22-year-old Jurado will make his 11th
appearance and eighth start of the season after following an “opener” in each of
his last three outings, going 1-1, with an 8.31 ERA in those appearances. He
last worked in the Rangers’ 6-3 win Saturday at San Diego
Hunter Pence Jersey , entering in the second inning and picking up the win via four innings of three-run, seven-hit pitching.Jurado has gone 1-1 with a
5.60 ERA over his first four games (three starts), three of them starts, at
Globe Life Park. He has never faced the Mariners. SAN FRANCISCO — The San
Francisco Giants get a chance to play the role of spoiler against the Colorado
Rockies for the second straight September when the National League West clubs
open a three-game series on Friday night.Giants right-hander Chris Stratton
(9-9, 4.99 ERA), bombed in back-to-back starts against the Rockies earlier this
season, and Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-8, 4.89), winless in his last
11 starts, draw the starting assignments in the opener.The Rockies (81-65) begin
a nine-game trip in first place in the NL West, having moved a healthy 4 1/2
games up on third-place Arizona (77-70) with a 10-3 shellacking of the
Diamondbacks Thursday at Colorado to complete a 3-1 series win.Article continues
below ...The Los Angeles Dodgers (80-67) are in second place, 1 1/2 games behind
the Rockies.The Rockies will visit Los Angeles and Arizona for three games
apiece next week to complete its road — and NL West — schedule. Colorado
finishes the season at home against Philadelphia and Washington.The Rockies
found themselves battling the Diamondbacks
http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-williams-jersey , Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers in mid-September last season when they went into
San Francisco and lost two straight to a Giants team well out of
contention.Colorado then had to scramble just to claim the second wild-card spot
in the NL by one game.This year’s San Francisco club finds itself in the same
situation, having lost a West Coast era-record 11 straight.Stratton has started
two of those games and pitched pretty well in 4-1 and 4-3 losses to the New York
Mets and Milwaukee Brewers, respectably. He allowed just seven hits in 11
innings in those games.That was a marked improvement over the 13 runs and 19
hits he gave up in 9-8 and 8-1 losses in a home-and-home sequence with the
Rockies bridging June and July. Nolan Arenado homered in both of the games. The
star third baseman hasn’t been the only Colorado player who has rocked the
28-year-old Stratton in the past. Ian Desmond (.625), Trevor Story (.556),
Charlie Blackmon (.500), DJ LeMahieu (.500) and Gerardo Parra (.500) all have
.500 or better career batting averages against Stratton.He has gone 1-1 with a
7.89 ERA in five games, including four starts, in his career against
Colorado.Anderson will face a Giants team that has hit even worse than he has
pitched of late.The 28-year-old hasn’t won since July 4 and now leads the NL in
home runs allowed with 29.He was taken deep by the Giants’ Gorkys Hernandez in a
9-8 Rockies home win on Sept. 3. Anderson did not get the win, pulled after 5
1/3 innings having allowed three runs and six hits.Anderson has made six starts
in his career against the Giants and went 1-2 with a 4.25 ERA.Hernandez has two
career homers against him in 10 career at-bats.The Giants enter the series
having scored one run in five straight home games. They’ve totaled just nine
home runs (none in the last three outings) during their 0-for-September run of
11 games.
