Pittsburgh Pirates vs Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners (26-24) look to establish their longest win streak of the season with a fifth straight victory on Friday, when they open a three-game weekend series with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates (25-24) at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners are coming off a four-game sweep of the lowly Oakland A’s and have now won seven of nine on home turf. Winners in just one of their past five overall contests, the Mariners make their first visit to Seattle since 2016 aiming to snap a three-game slide when facing the Mariners.

Starting Pitcher Report: Pittsburgh Pirates

Mitch Keller will be gunning for his sixth win of the season when he starts for the Pirates in Friday’s series opener. The 27-year-old right hander has been a steady presence on the mound since getting rocked in his season debut.

Keller has limited opposing batters to two or fewer earned runs in eight of nine outings since while also going at least six full innings on eight occasions over that stretch.The Pirates ace sports a 5-1 record, and has gone 2-1 in four starts this month despite enjoying little run support.

Pittsburgh blew the early lead it had built in Keller’s last outing, a 4-3 loss to Arizona last Saturday, in which Keller allowed two earned runs on just three hits over 6.0 innings. And overall, the Pirates have scored just 10 total runs over Keller’s past four appearances.

Starting Pitcher Report: Seattle Mariners

George Kirby will be trying to bounce back from his first loss in almost a month when he answers the call for Seattle on Friday night. The 25-year-old right hander went seven full innings last time out, giving up just three earned runs on six hits and striking out six, but came up short in a pitching duel with rookie Jared Shuster in last Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Kirby has emerged as a workhorse for the Mariners this season, racking up 35.2 total innings of work over his past five starts and surrendering just eight total earned runs on 31 hits over that stretch. However, he sports a middling 2-2 record on the road this season despite giving up just nine total earned runs in five away appearances.

Keys to Victory: Pirates

The Pirates have struggled badly at times to generate offense since seeing their red-hot 20-8 start to the season fizzle out. The club has averaged just three runs per game during their current 1-4 swoon, and have been limited to two or fewer runs six times during a 2-7 run on the road.

Those woes continued in their back-to-back losses to close out this week’s three-game series with Texas, in which they scored just three total runs, and no runs beyond the third inning. Shortstop Rodolfo Castro provided a pair of hits in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Texas in just his second multi-hit outing this month.

It has been feast or famine for veteran slugger Andrew McCutchen who went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in Wednesday’s series finale, but who has also recorded multiple hits in four of seven outings.

Keys to Victory: Mariners

This week’s visit from the bottom-feeding A’s proved to be a tonic for the Mariners, who closed out their preceding nine-game road trip on a 2-5 run. The Mariners were forced to overcome an early deficit for the second time in the series in Thursday’s narrow 3-2 victory, which featured just eight total hits from the two clubs.

Mariners starters have pitched at least 6.0 innings in each of the club’s past seven games, giving up just 12 total earned runs, leaving the club with a fresh bullpen entering the weekend.

Infielder Ty France showed no ill effects from taking a pitch to the hand on Tuesday that forced to him to sit on Wednesday. France connected on a pair of home runs in Thursday’s win, and has gone 5-for-10 with three homers and six runs scored over his past three appearances.