Game 22 Open Thread: Indians vs. Mariners

The Indians finish their home stand this weekend with a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.  The weather forecast does not look fantastic for these three games, so hopefully they can make it through without extended rain delays or cancellations.  Since it’s always a challenge to make up games against west coast teams, I’d imagine they’d delay as long as possible if they think they can get these games in.

The Mariners got off to a rocky start this season, but just took two of three from Detroit and have played better as of late.  Fortunately, the Indians will miss James Paxton during this series, one of the hottest pitchers in baseball right now.  Ariel Miranda will take the mound for Seattle tonight, against Carlos Carrasco.  Miranda had a rough outing in his most recent appearance, lasting just three innings against Oakland, surrendering 4 ER on 7 hits.  However, he was sharp in his prior outing against the Florida Marlins, allowing 0 ER in 7 IP.

Carrasco just missed throwing a complete game shutout in his last outing against the Chicago White Sox, but still threw 8 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just 3 hits, striking out 8 and walking 1.

Since Miranda is a lefty, we’ll be seeing Austin Jackson and Brandon Guyer in the lineup tonight.  While I’m a fan of Guyer (despite his slow start) I’m not sure if I’m a fan of him batting third…at least not until he works his way through this slump.  I guess if Brantley has a night off though, it causes less shuffling to the rest of the lineup to just stick Guyer in his spot.

Lineups: