The Arizona Diamondbacks will aim for a second sweep in their past three series when they meet the slumping Seattle Mariners in the finale of a three-game set on Wednesday afternoon in Phoenix.
The Mariners remain in search of a clutch hit.
Seattle will send right-hander Bryan Woo, the team’s most consistent starter this season, to the mound in an attempt to turn things around.
Woo (5-3, 3.07 ERA) will oppose Diamondbacks left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (1-3, 6.70).
The Mariners have lost seven of their past eight games and 14 of 20, and they dropped to .500 for the first time since April 18 with a 10-3 loss to Arizona in the second game of the series Tuesday.
“We’re trying to find ways to make it work, and it seems like if one group steps up in a given night, the other group unfortunately is not able to hold up their end of the bargain,” Seattle general manager Justin Hollander told SiriusXM.
“Right now it just feels like there are not enough contributions from all sides of the ball. And that happens.”
The Diamondbacks won the first two games of the series with homers. Josh Naylor hit a walk-off grand slam on Monday, and Arizona hit three homers on Tuesday to give them five for the series.
“Really good win,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “It wasn’t where your heart is pounding for the last three or four innings. We look forward to those wins. We are conditioned for any type of win, but we haven’t had this type of win for a long time.”
Arizona had just a 13-12 edge in hits on Tuesday, but the Mariners went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Seattle’s only hit in that situation came on Julio Rodriguez’s RBI single in the eighth, when the game already was decided.
Woo has emerged as the Mariners’ No. 1 starter on a staff that has hit by injuries to George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller. Woo has made nine quality starts in his 12 outings and has not pitched fewer than six innings in any appearance this year.
“What that does for a team (is big),” Hollander said. “When you can just count on somebody to go out there every five days and pitch six innings, six really good innings, what that does for the bullpen.
“And what it does for the offense, knowing that if we just give Bryan a little support that most of the bullpen can take the night off, is so valuable.”
Woo had a streak of four quality starts end in his latest outing, a 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday. He gave up four runs on four hits in six innings.
The 25-year-old California native has faced the Diamondbacks once, giving up three runs in five innings of a no-decision in 2023. Alek Thomas went 2-for-2 off Woo.
Rodriguez will make his second start since returning from three-week stint on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation. He gave up two runs and six hits in five innings on Friday at Cincinnati and was in line for the victory until the Reds rallied and pulled out a 4-3 win in 10 innings.
The 32-year-old veteran has pitched into the seventh inning only twice in 10 starts this season, but with Corbin Burnes out for the season after Tommy John surgery, the D-backs are looking for more length from their other starters.
Rodriguez, who has spent most of his career in the American League, is 5-4 with a 4.03 ERA in 12 starts against the Mariners, the most recent in 2023. J.P. Crawford is 5-for-15 with a homer against him.
–Field Level Media
