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Yankees, Mariners meet Tuesday night
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 8/23/2016  at  10:53:00 AM
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NEW YORK YANKEES (63-61)

at SEATTLE MARINERS (67-57)

First pitch: Tuesday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: N/A, Total: N/A

The Yankees will be hoping to avoid losing their third straight game when they face the Mariners in Seattle on Tuesday.

Monday night’s game between the Yankees and Mariners was a real roller coaster, as the teams combined to hit seven homers in a game that featured four lead changes. The Yankees had a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Mariners ended up pulling out the 7-5 win. New York has now lost two straight games and things are starting to slip away from the team in the AL Wild Card race. The Mariners, meanwhile, have won nine of their past 13 games coming into this contest and will be hoping to keep it up. The starters in this game are set to be LHP C.C. Sabathia (7-10, 4.49 ERA, 110 K) for the Yankees and RHP Taijuan Walker (4-7, 4.10 ERA, 80 K) for the Mariners. Walker has made three starts in Triple-A since being demoted in July, but he has earned another shot in the bigs and the Mariners are hoping their prized prospect will turn things around. One thing worth noting is that Seattle is an impressive 18-9 when facing AL East opponents this season. The team is, however, just 19-25 against the money line when facing lefties on the year.

The Yankees are hoping to pick up a victory on Tuesday night and C.C. Sabathia will be the guy on the mound for New York. Sabathia has had an up-and-down season for the team, but he is coming off of a brutal start against Toronto on Aug. 17 and must regain his composure coming into this contest. Sabathia pitched just six innings in that game and allowed seven earned runs on nine hits. He had, however, allowed three or fewer earned runs in three of his previous four games and will be hoping to turn in something close to a quality start in this one. It’s important that he keeps his walks down in this one, as Sabathia has put on three or more batters in three of the past four games. Offensively, C Gary Sanchez (.385, 8 HR, 15 RBI) has emerged as one of the Yankees’ best hitters. He was 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBI on Monday night and has now homered seven times in the past eight games. He is on fire for New York and should continue to terrorize his opponents the rest of the season.

Taijuan Walker is one of the more prized prospects the Mariners have, but he allowed 11 earned runs in his last two starts before being sent to the minors and clearly has a lot of work to do. Walker did, however, perform well in Triple-A and is hoping that he can improve upon his numbers in the majors moving forward. He has some really impressive stuff on the mound, but must locate his pitches better and find a way to avoid making huge mistakes. He allowed 15 homers in his past 10 starts in the majors, and that is not going to cut it moving forward. Walker’s run support in this game is going to be important, but he’ll luckily have a red-hot 2B Robinson Cano (.294, 28 HR, 79 RBI) on his side in this one. Cano has seen his average rise from .291 to .294 over the past eight games and was 3-for-4 against the Yankees on Monday. He is swinging the bat well and should be able to contribute in this one. DH Nelson Cruz (.287, 32 HR, 78 RBI) is another guy to watch in this game. He homered in Monday’s win and tends to hit for power in bunches.


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