First pitch: Tuesday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: Pittsburgh +150, Seattle -160, Total: 8.0

Pittsburgh goes to Seattle to start a two-game interleague series with the Mariners on Tuesday.

The Pirates are coming into Tuesday’s game off of a series win against the Dodgers. Pittsburgh hopes that the series win will get the team on the right track after losing eight of nine before the series with L.A. started last Friday. The Pirates are trying to hold on to third place in the tough NL Central that includes the league’s best team, the Chicago Cubs. Tonight’s game will be a new experience for most of the players because the two teams have not played each other since 2013. Seattle comes into the game off of an 11-6 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday. The Mariners have gone cold as of late, winning only three of the last ten games. Seattle is trying to gain ground in the standings, but the team also has one of the leagues best teams, the Texas Rangers, in its division. Seattle will be glad that it is facing a National League team because the team has gone 8-2 in interleague games this season. Tonight’s pitching matchup features Pittsburgh’s LHP Jonathon Niese (6-5, 4.93 ERA, 63 K) against Seattle’s RHP Hisashi Iwakuma (6-6, 4.45 ERA, 72 K).

Jonathon Niese’s season has taken a turn for the worst over his last few starts. In his last three appearances, he is 0-3 with a 9.18 ERA and has not let up less than four runs in any of the games. In those three games he gave up six homers, which has been an issue for him this season, giving up the sixth most homers in the league (18). The most homers he has given up in a whole season was 22 in 2012. Niese will break that record this year because he is already at 18 and still has more than half a season still to pitch. His last good start was on Jun. 7, when he threw seven scoreless innings against his former team, the Mets. Niese has one career start against Seattle (in 2014), when he lost the game as a Met, throwing six innings and giving up four runs. Pittsburgh will need its offense to produce if Niese performs the way he has recently. OF Andrew McCutchen (.243, 12 HR, 32 RBI) has struggled at the plate in June (.211) but is finding his footing in the last seven days (.273, 2 HR, 4 RBI). Look for 3B David Freese (.285, 6 HR, 30 RBI) to get some hits tonight because he has had success against Iwakuma in his career (.238, 2 HR, 3 RBI). The Pirates will need OF Gregory Polanco (.296, 10 HR, 44 RBI) to drive in some runs tonight, like he has all season (leads team in RBI).

Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma has had an up-and-down year. He is coming off a poor outing where he gave up five runs in 4.2 innings in a loss at Detroit. In his last three starts, he is 2-1 with a 5.78 ERA. He has found a sense of consistency recently, winning five of his last seven games. The HR has also plagued Iwakuma because in three of his last five starts he has given up three long balls. Seattle has two of the premier hitters in the league in 2B Robinson Cano (.297, 19 HR, 53 RBI) and DH Nelson Cruz (.285, 19 HR, 51 RBI). Cano is leading the team in BA and RBI, and is tied with Cruz for the lead in home runs. Cruz has had a great past seven days, as he has hit .263 at the plate with three homers and five RBI. Look for 3B Kyle Seager (.259, 15 HR, 49 RBI) to have a big game because he has hit .667 against Niese in his career. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Seattle has a few homers tonight because they have the third most bombs as a team in the league and they are going against a pitcher in Niese that has been giving up 1.2 homers per game.