Pittsburgh Pirates at Seattle Mariners Series Preview

When & Who

Pittsburgh Pirates (25-24) at Seattle Mariners (25-24)

Game 1 – (5/26, 10:10 EST)

Probable Pitchers:

For the Pirates – Mitch Keller (5-1, 2.44 ERA)

For the Mariners – George Kirby (5-3, 2.62 ERA)

Game 2 – (5/27, 4:10 EST)

Probable Pitchers:

For the Pirates –Roansy Contreras (3-4, 4.50 ERA)

For the Mariners– Luis Castillo (3-2, 2.97 ERA)

Game 3 – (5/28, 4:10 EST)

Probable Pitchers:

For the Pirates – Luis Ortiz (1-2, 4.02 ERA)

For the Mariners– Marco Gonzales (4-1, 5.68 ERA)

*Editor’s note: Based on comments from Derek Shelton, there is a good chance Vince Velasquez will return in this series. The Sunday tilt in a direct flop with Luis Ortiz makes a ton of sense. – Gary Morgan

Team Trends

Seattle is coming off a series win against the Athletics but has lost their past two of three series before that. After a surging season in 2022, the Mariners are off to a slower than anticipated start but still have a top-ten pitching staff in MLB, including a 3.72 ERA and 255 strikeouts as a rotation. George Kirby and Luis Castillo are two of Seattle’s top pitchers and could easily give Pirates batters fits.

The Pirates are playing better baseball as of late, but have lost 16 of their last 21 games. Pitching has been the teams’ strong suit, and the Pirates will put perhaps their three strongest pitchers on the mound in this series. The Mariners rank 25^th in MLB in team OPS, and 18^th in MLB in home runs. Limiting the offense is step one for the Pirates having a chance to take two of three against Seattle.

Who’s Hot

For the Mariners – J.P Crawford – Crawford has collected a hit in the Mariners’ first three games against the Athletics and is hitting .296 (8-for-27) over his last seven games.

For the Pirates –  Connor Joe – Joe collected a hit in each game against the Rangers and drew two walks.

Who’s Not

For the Mariners – Eugenio Suarez – Suarez is just 5-for-26 (.192) over his past seven games, with twelve strikeouts in that span. Suarez is also hitting just .185 over his past 30 games.  

For the Pirates – Jack Suwinski – Suwinski collected just one hit against the Rangers and recorded five strikeouts in the series. He is batting just .154 with eight strikeouts over his last seven games.

Series Overview & Prediction

Seattle has won six of their last ten, but four have come against a historically bad Athletics team, and have had trouble against higher competition. The same story applies to the recent Pirates, who have yet to win a series in May. The Pirates are putting some good pitching on the mound, and so are the Mariners. Both teams have offenses that rank near the bottom in MLB in many categories, so getting a feel for this series is difficult. But the Pirates need to break losing at some point, so maybe they take two of three here and decide enough is enough. (Wishful thinking).