Series Preview: Sox @ Seattle

Seattle Mariners (39-33)
AL WEST: 8 GB
STREAK: W-2 LAST 10: 4-6
AVG. .283 (3rd) ERA: 4.74 (12th)
HRs: 69 (9th) RUNS: 361 (8th)

Season Series: Boston leads, 2-1

Probable Pitching Matchups:
GM1: Tavarez (5-4, 4.50) vs. Weaver (1-6, 8.56)
Finally Julie gets to square off against another team's scrub! After matching aces all season (and faring pretty well in doing so), Tavarez rides the high of his 4-game winning streak including a 3-hit, 7-inning gem against Atlanta last week.

Meanwhile after stealing $8 million dollars from the generous Mariner owners following a nice postseason with the Cards, Weaver has gone right back to being the middling piece of milquetoast who couldn't even beat out his brother for a spot in the Angel's rotation. Forget his record & ERA, opponents are batting .387 off him. Nice
MY PICK: Sox in a rout

GM2: Gabbard (1-0, ) vs. Hernandez (4-4, 4.00)
The kid returns to the rotation and who does he have to face but Boston's early season nemesis, King Felix.

Hernandez nearly no-hit the Sox back on April 11th in Fenway in the eighth game of the season, but shortly thereafter spent a month on the DL and hasn't been the same since. Will Gabbard be able to spin some stopgap magic again, or will the King conquer the Sox lineup for the second time this year?
MY PICK: Seattle

GM3: Matsuzaka (9-5, ) Feierabend (1-2, 8.20)
The another famous Japanese baseball player will grace the grounds at SafeCo Field as Matsuzaka takes the mound in the house that Nintendo built.

Dice will feel right at home as he opposes fellow countrymen Ichiro and Kenji Johjima, who play on what might be called the most Japanese-freindly team in the majors. Boston is currently trailing Seattle and New York in that department, but with Dice & Oki they are catching up fast.

Something tells me that the warm atmosphere combined with the stiff mound opponent should spell victory for Dice and the Sox amidst all the Japanese flags flapping thorughout the park.
MY PICK: Sox & Dice= Red storm

KEY PLAYERS:

• Ichiro (.364/53R/37RBI)-- what do you know, Ichiro is near the top of the batting leaders in the AL once again? (although he trails Maggs Ordonez by 17 pts.) After hitting a pedestrian .357 in May, Suzuki has stepped it up in June to the tune of a .429 average (39-91) including a current 19-game hitting streak in which he's hitting .468. Yikes.
• Richie Sexon (.206/14/44)-- the large bopper has always been a hit-it-a-ton or miss-it-by-a-mile player, and this year is no defferent. Although he's seventh in the league in big flys, he's also in the top 20 in strikeouts, along with his teammate...
• ...Adrain Beltre (.257/9/28)-- speaking of stealing money, the free agent bust is at it again. This smooth criminal hit 48 homers in his walk year with the Dodgers, and he's hit exactly 53 in 2+ seasons in Seattle. Stop, thief!
• Raul Ibanez (.280/6/49)-- often overlooked as a key piece of Seattle's offensive puzzle, the leftfielder is leading the team in RBIs and is coming off a four-ribbie game yesterday against the Reds.

PREVIEW:
The Sox check back into American league play and face a team that is nearly a mirror opposite of the one they just got finished with.

Unlike the Padres, who rely on excellent pitching and sporadic offense to win games, the Mariners spank the cover off the ball yet their pitchers can't seem to get anybody out- opponents are batting a robust .280 off Seattle pitching.

The last time these two teams met was in early May when they had to make up a game that was postponed from that early season series. Boston won the makeup game 8-7 when Dice-K blew a five run lead but Manny hit the second of his two homers to win it for Boston.

After a mediocre couple of months the Ms have turned it on of late, going 13-9 in June and riding the hot bat of Ichiro all the way back into playoff contention. But if they continue to slip out of the race, there have been grumblings that Ichiro would welcome a trade in order to try and play with a contending team before the end of his career.

How friggin sweet would it be to see him playing center and batting leadoff in Fenway?!

Then we'd see who the most Japanese-freindly team in the majors is, wouldn't we Seattle!?

Go Sox!