The San Francisco Giants continue their last road trip of the season, as they travel north to Seattle to take on the Mariners in game one of a two-game series on Tuesday. The Giants swept a two-game series from the Mariners on September 8-9 by scores of 6-5 and 10-1. San Francisco is the eighth seed in the National League (as of Monday afternoon), while the Mariners are on the outside looking in in the American League playoff chase, 4.5 games back of the final playoff spot (before play on Monday).
Giants look to break losing streak
The San Francisco Giants are coming off a three-game series against the second-place San Diego Padres, in which they were on the losing end of each game. They were outscored by a combined 15-2 score in the three games. The three-game losing streak is their second-longest losing streak of the season. This three-game streak comes on the heels of a five-game winning streak from September 5-9.
On Monday, the Giants were swept in a doubleheader by the Padres. They were dominated by San Diego pitching, as they could manage just five hits combined in the two games of the twinbill. Mike Yastrzemski, who leads the Giants with 32 RBI, doubled and knocked in the only run of the day for the Giants in game two, after they were shutout in game one.
Despite being one game under .500 and 10 games out of first place with 12 games to play, the Giants are very much in the postseason discussion. San Francisco has not been in the playoffs since 2016, when they lost to the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Series.
The Giants have not played well on the road this season, going 9-15 away from San Francisco. Despite their lackluster performance in San Diego over the weekend, San Francisco is 6-5 in September and has a .306 batting average this month with an .896 OPS (compared with .266 and .781 for the season). San Francisco is in the top 10 in the majors in batting average (fifth), OPS (seventh), and runs per nine innings (seventh—5.24). Donovan Solano is fourth in the big leagues with a .349 batting average, while Wilmer Flores leads the team with nine home runs.
“I don’t imagine myself winning a batting title,” Solano said through Spanish-language translator Erwin Higueros on mercurynews.com. “It’s not something I think about, I’m aware of what I’m doing, I’m aware of my numbers, but it’s not something that I take with me every time I go to bat. I just have faith in what I’m doing.”
The Giants don’t have a starter listed for game two yet.
Mariners look to play spoiler against Giants
After winning just seven of their first 25 games, the Seattle Mariners have played pretty well since, having winning streaks of four and six games in the last three weeks. The Mariners have played much better at home this season, going 11-8 at T-Mobile Park. They have, however, hit worse at home this season than they have on the road. Seattle has hit just .215 at home with just 19 home runs in 19 games. The Mariners pitching has been much better at home this season. They have a 4.24 ERA (compared to 5.95 on the road), while holding teams to a .206 batting average and a .655 OPS at home. Seattle won two of three over the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend before returning home to face the Oakland A’s in a doubleheader on Monday. Seattle won 7-3 on Sunday in Arizona, despite starting pitcher Justin Dunn going just two innings.This preview was written before the Mariners’ games on Monday.
“We tried to give our team every opportunity to win the ballgame,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said about Dunn’s ineffectiveness on oregonlive.com. “It happens. It’s a crazy season. Certainly a day heading into a doubleheader you would like to get a little bit more length out of our starter. It didn’t happen, we’ve got to adjust on the fly and that’s what we’ll do.”
The Mariners are led by rookie Kyle Lewis, who is batting .292 this season with nine home runs, while Kyle Seager tops the team with 33 RBI, which is tied for 15th in the major leagues. The Mariners are in the bottom one-third in baseball in pretty much all offensive categories.
Ljay Newsome goes to the mound for Seattle on Tuesday. He will be making his third start and fourth appearance of the season. The first-year pitcher does not have a decision in 2020, and he has posted a 3.24 ERA, giving up three earned runs, including two home runs, in 8.1 innings. His last start was against the Giants, as he gave up just one run on two hits in 1.1 innings.
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