Game Preview: Yankees @ Mariners: June 12

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees have not played great baseball of late but they should feel a little better about themselves after taking the first two games in Seattle. Tonight will be the third and final game of the series as Chase Whitley will face off against the Mariner’s Roenis Elias at 10:10 pm EST.

Elias comes into today with thirteen starts under his belt. He has been solid for the M’s compiling a 5-4 record to go with a respectable 3.64 ERA. However, Elias has stumbled over his last six starts, giving up at least four runs in four of them.

For the Yankees, it will be Whitley who as we all know has been brilliant and the only other starter besides Tanaka you actually feel good about. The 24-year old picked up his first win in his last outing against the Royals and will look to continue to build off his success. Whitley comes into tonight with an ERA of just 2.42 in five starts.

Elias will face the Yankees for the second time tonight. The first time coming in May at Yankee stadium when he went seven innings giving up just six hits and two runs. For Whitley, another first for him in his young career as he’s never faced Seattle before.

It’s stats like these that make the Yankees miss Robinson Cano, but then fans just think of his lazy jog to first base and they feel better. Regardless, the guy is on fire. In the last 3o days, Cano is hitting .380. That’s not a typo. He also has provided two home runs and 14 RBIs in the span. Although there has not been too much power off his bat,  just three homers on the year, the second baseman can still hit very well posting a .332 average coming into tonight.

The big bats in the Bronx have not been so big the last month. The hottest hitter on the Yankees is Jacoby Ellsbury with a .283 average in the time frame. To his credit though, he has been red hot and is at a .375 clip the last week. It seems like the same old story every day. If the Yankees don’t find a way to bring life to that line-up, they’re in trouble.

Luckily for the Bombers, they have salvaged the first two in this series and will go for the sweep tonight. I know it’s very early, nut the Yankees need this sweep because they really need to begin pulling away from that .500 mark.