The British are Coming: Yankees Series Preview Part one

By Patrick

We've decided to break the previews into daily pieces now with one player to watch from each team and an outlook for each game. Enjoy!

I guess in this stupid metaphor, the Mariners would be the British, since the Yankees are well, the Yankees. At any rate, the 15-18 Mariners travel to the Big Apple tonight to square off against their old playoff nemeses, those damn Yankees. The rivalry has cooled off in recent years, since the M's and playoffs haven't exactly been synonymous for a while. Really, they have never been synonymous, since one, that's grammatically incorrect, and two, the Mariners have only reached the playoffs four times in franchise history. And yet somehow, they still have fans. Baffling, really.

The Mariners can take some really big steps forward in New York this weekend. The last time Felix made the opening start in a series (against the Rays), he pitched solidly, but the Mariners didn't do enough to support him and lost in extra innings. That led to a complete lack of offensive confidence for the rest of that series and a four-game sweep. So Felix's start against Hiroki Kuroda will play a big role in dictating the final two games in the series. If he wins, I think the M's take two of three. If he loses, they get swept. Felix is an important player. He was third in the major league in WAR among starters in the MLB earlier this week. He's definitely an important player. As far as the Mariners are concerned, he's the most important player. Period. But that was obvious. Filling up space yay!

May 11: The King (3-1, 1.89) vs. An overpaid Japanese Guy (2-4, 3.75)

Hiroki Kuroda signed a big one year, $10 million contract in the offseason. Any guesses as to what his career record is? 43-50. The Yankees signed a career under .500 pitcher to a ten million dollar contract to be their number two starter. Wow. Brian Cashman isn't an amazing GM, but he's better than that. That's a complete joke. Not shockingly, Kuroda is just 2-4 with a worse than career ERA and just 22 strikeouts in six starts. So he must pitch to contact. Good for him. Luckily, the Mariners are in town so he has just a one in five chance of running into an elite pitcher. Let's spin the magic probables wheel! And Hiroki, let's see what you've won! Oh, Hiroki I'm sorry, but you landed on Felix Hernandez. Suck it, you overpaid mediocre pitcher guy! Yeah that was dumb. But Felix should roll tonight. He loves pitching in Yankee stadium, and as long as he avoids giving up little wiffle ball homers to right, he'll be fine. Felix is off to another incredible start in his eighth major league season, and should hold the Yankees down while the M's do just enough damage to Kuroda. Or the M's might not support him. Not again, Mariners, come on.

Players to watch:

Ichiro Suzuki: We're all about Japanese people today at Way Out in Left Field. That being said, Ichiro dipped back under .300 this week. He has a chance tonight to hit against a right handed japanese-style pitcher. Something about that sounds appealing to me. I look for Ichiro to homer in this game by taking advantage of a familiar style and the short porch in right. And his average will start with a three by the end of the night. Best believe.

Mark Teixeira: Not only is this name hard for Felix and I to spell, it is hard for us to get out. Harder for me than Felix obviously. Tex is 17/53 against Felix lifetime with four doubles, five homers, and nine RBIs. That's a solid .321/.393/.679 split. Damn. The guy tattoos Felix. This is significant because not a lot of people do this to Felix. A Rod for example, has a .167 career average against Felix. Much more Felix like. Let's hope Felix artfully pitches around Tex and manages to get him out twice tonight. A walk or two wouldn't kill him either. Not great foot speed of Mark.

Prediction:

M's 5, Yanks 2. Felix will be too much, and the Mariners will get the bats going enough to tag Kuroda early and often. Kuroda goes six, but gives up the five runs, and by that point, Felix is cruising with a shutout. He'll give up a run somewhere, and somebody (Furbush?) will give up a run out of the pen, but Brandon League shuts it down for the save and the M's get the series going on the right foot. Go M's.