The AL's best record runs into a Mariners club that just spent a week smoking pitching staffs, and Tropicana Field gets the first taste of whichever version shows up.
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SEATB
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Best BetRays
Tampa Bay owns the better record in the American League and has the scariest bat in baseball right now in Caminero. A 3-game skid coming in is a real wrinkle, but this is still a deeper, more complete roster than a Mariners team that's still without Julio Rodriguez for at least part of the series.
Mariners
+Won 4 of last 5, including two shutout wins
+Julio Rodriguez eligible to return for series opener
+Gilbert-led staff just ran off 24 scoreless innings
−Rodriguez missed a week-plus with a concussion
−Lineup thinned by Donovan and Refsnyder injuries
−Bullpen down Brash, Criswell and Vargas
Rays
+Best record in the American League at 52-36
+Caminero authoring one of the hottest stretches in years
+All-Star starter anchoring a first-place lineup
−Dropped 3 straight entering this series
−Pepiot lost for the season, rotation stretched thin
−Bullpen missing Wilson, Heasley and Manuel Rodriguez
First pitch at Tropicana Field is set for 7:10 PM ET on Friday, July 10, the opener of Seattle's last series before the All-Star break. Neither club has locked in a starter yet, which means both bullpens should be on alert given how each offense has looked lately.
The biggest name to watch isn't on the mound. Julio Rodriguez is eligible to come off the concussion injured list the day this series opens, and getting him back in center field would be a real lift for a Seattle lineup that's already missing Brendan Donovan and Rob Refsnyder. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is still waiting on Jake Fraley and Gavin Lux to finish rehab assignments and had Ryan Pepiot lost for the season back in May.
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SEA Mariners
TB Rays
Both rosters are banged up in the bullpen too — Seattle without Matt Brash, Cooper Criswell and Carlos Vargas, Tampa Bay missing Steven Wilson, Jonathan Heasley and Manuel Rodriguez — which is worth remembering before anyone leans too hard on a number.
Seattle Mariners
Jul 9?@ Marlins—
Jul 8?@ Marlins—
Jul 7?@ Marlins—
Tampa Bay Rays
Jul 9?vs Yankees—
Jul 8?vs Yankees—
Jul 7?vs Yankees—
Recent form.
Junior Caminero is the story in Tampa Bay right now. He homered in six straight games and put together a stretch that only Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have matched, and it's part of why the Rays sit atop the American League. But that same team just dropped 3 in a row, including a series loss to the Yankees, and the offense went cold at exactly the wrong moment. Seattle's trending the other way — 4 wins in its last 5, with a stretch where Logan Gilbert and the bullpen ran off 24 consecutive scoreless innings against Toronto sandwiched around an 11-0 blowout.
Seattle Mariners
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Tampa Bay Rays
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Neither team is at full strength walking into this one, which makes the injury report as relevant as anything else here. Whoever gets more of their wounded lineup back first — Rodriguez for Seattle, Fraley or Lux for Tampa Bay — could decide who's playing loose and who's grinding through the last series before the break.
