Seattle Mariners series preview: Servais’s men

The Mariners come to Kauffman Stadium with a 4-3 record, the only team other than the Royals and Twins to have only played seven games thus far. Their record puts them in the middle of the American League West standings, 2.5 games behind the first-place Houston Astros and 1.5 behind the Anaheim Angels.

The game times and pitching matchups are as follows:

• Monday, April 9, 2018, 7:15 PM CDT - Marco Gonzales (L) versus Jake Junis
• Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 7:15 PM CDT - Felix Hernandez versus Eric Skoglund (L)
• Wednesday, April 11, 2018 1:15 PM CDT - James Paxton (L) versus Danny Duffy (L)

*All stats used on the tables herein courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball Reference and are players’ 2017 numbers

Marco Gonzales is clearly the easiest draw of the series for the Royals, but he did eke out a win in his first start of the season thanks in largely to the BABIP fairy and the giving spirit of the LOBster. Félix Hernández is comfortably removed from the days in which he was a perennial contender for the Cy Young Award, but he’s probably not as awful as he was in his last start against the Giants in which he allowed eight runs in four innings. King Félix’s rotation-mate eagle tamer James Paxton seems like the only thing keeping him from being in the conversation for the Cy Young Award will be health. He was worth 4.6 fWAR in just 24 starts last year, so there’s little question of how good he can be.

As a squad, the Mariners have gotten out to a strong offensive start despite playing without Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino. On the whole, they’re slashing .277/.340/.420 with a .336 wOBA and 122 wRC+. They’re tenth in fWAR, despite having played just seven games. The offense has been fueled largely by the hot starts of Robinson Canó and Mitch Haniger, whose respective 220 and 213 wRC+ would have anyone salivating.