Series Preview: Mariners @ Yankees

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

It’ll be the first time Robinson Cano will be back in Yankee Stadium since signing a 10-year contract worth $240 million dollars with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners are really struggling to start the year and with a trip to Yankee Stadium coming, you wonder if Cano will still believe giving up the pinstripes for the money was worth it.

                                                Pitching Match-ups

       Mariners                                          @                                         Yankees

    Chris Young             Tuesday, April 29th:  7:05 pm              C.C. Sabathia

    Roenis Elias            Wednesday, April 30th: 7:05 pm           David Phelps

 Felix Hernandez           Thursday, May 1st: 7:05 pm               Hiroki Kuroda

Who’s Hot?: Although his numbers are not super impressive so far this year, Cano has been red hot over the last week. He has not hit any home runs in that span but he is hitting over .400 with an OPS over .900 over the last seven games. Just as hot is their third baseman, Kyle Seager. He also is hitting around .400 over the past week but has mashed five homers and 11 RBI as well. Not only is he the Mariners’ hottest hitter, but he may be the hottest hitter in baseball.

Who’s Not?: Abraham Almonte has struggled greatly. The outfielder is hitting under .150 with nine strikeouts in his past six games. He only has two RBI to go with it. Almonte has been bad, but Corey Hart has been worse. Hart’s average over the last week has hovered around .160 and he hasn’t hit any homers or driven in any runs either. The Mariners’ lineup even with Cano is still weak, and with guys struggling as much as these two, Seattle’s record speaks for itself.

                                                  *What To Watch For*

C.C. Sabathia will start Tuesday. Luckily for the Yankees, almost no one on the Mariners hits the lefty well. In fact, only one player has good numbers against him and that is Willie Bloomquist. Bloomquist is 10-for-28 (.357) but no home runs against the 33-year-old. The only other two guys that have a decent number of at-bats against Sabathia are John Buck and Michael Saunders. They are a combined 9-for-57 (.157) with just a homer and four RBI against the Yankees’ ace.

David Phelps will start the second game on Wednesday and there isn’t much history between he and the Mariners. Only four guys on Seattle have at-bats against Phelps  and they are a combined 1-for-5. The only hit of the bunch comes from John Buck. The final start of the series will be made by Hiroki Kuroda who doesn’t have much of a history with the Mariners either.

Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley are a combined 3-for-21 (.142) against Kuroda. The only guys that don’t have poor numbers against the 39-year-old are Corey Hart and Justin Smoak who combined are 4-for-13 (.307). It should be a fun series for Cano’s homecoming, but something tells me the Mariners’ second baseman won’t be hearing too many cheers.