First pitch: Friday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: Houston +100, Seattle -110, Total: 9.5

Two red-hot teams clash when the Astros take on the Mariners in Seattle Friday night.

Both the Astros and Mariners are really playing some great baseball right now, as Houston has won four straight and Seattle has won five straight. The Astros have been the best team in baseball pretty much all season, but this was a much-needed streak for the Mariners. They could have very well slipped out of the postseason race, but they are now very much in the thick of things for an AL Wild Card spot. Starting in this Friday night game are RHP Joe Musgrove (4-6, 5.09 ERA, 52 K) for Houston and RHP Felix Hernandez (2-2, 4.73 ERA, 22 K) for Seattle. One trend that will have the Astros feeling confident in this game is the fact that they are 16-4 against the money line on the road when the money line is +125 to -125 this season. The Mariners, meanwhile, are an impressive 20-7 against the money line as a home favorite of -110 or higher this season. Both teams are relatively close to full strength entering this one, so injuries shouldn’t factor into the outcome.

The Astros are playing well coming into this game and are hoping to keep it rolling. They are, however, playing a red-hot Mariners team, so they’ll need a good outing from Musgrove here. Musgrove is capable of shutting his opponents down, but he is coming off of a very poor outing against Boston. Musgrove got the Sunday Night Baseball start against the Sox last week, and the righty allowed five earned runs in only 5.2 innings of work. Houston will need him to come through with at least a quality start in this one. He has been mediocre against Seattle this season, allowing five earned runs in 10.1 innings of work. Musgrove did not pitch into the sixth inning of either of his two starts against them, and it would be nice if he could here. Offensively, 2B Jose Altuve and SS Carlos Correa are two players to look out for here. Altuve is 13-for-26 with four doubles and two RBI against Hernandez in his career. Correa, meanwhile, is 4-for-8 with a double, a homer, and three RBI against the righty.

The Mariners are hoping to win their sixth straight game on Friday and they’ll need Felix Hernandez to recapture his superstar form in order to do that. Hernandez has not been himself the past few seasons, and he really struggled before hitting the DL at the end of April. Since this is his first game back, the team will likely take it a bit easy on him. That means they won’t be counting on him to work that far into this game, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be okay with a subpar outing. The Mariners need him to be King Felix for as long as he’s on the mound. As for run support, 2B Robinson Cano (.284 BA, 13 HR, 48 RBI) is one guy that could help his teammate out here. Cano is as hot as could be lately, as he is 3-for-8 with a double, two homers, and eight RBI over the past two games. He will be hoping to keep it up moving forward.