Ariel Miranda
At the trade deadline last year, the Mariners acquired Miranda from the Baltimore Orioles in the Wade Miley deal. He ended up making ten Major League starts and had a 3.54 ERA in those outings.
With all of the injuries Seattle’s rotation has had, there is more pressure on the 28-year-old left-hander to have quality outings. In nine starts, he has given up a team high nine home runs and he has 47 strikeouts in 48.1 innings.
Out of those nine starts, Miranda has gone seven innings in three of them. But, in his other six outings, he has pitched into the sixth inning or less. His strikeout totals have been better lately (17 K’s in his last two games).
If there’s one pitch to watch from Miranda Thursday afternoon, it’s his splitter. Teams are hitting .224 against that pitch with one home run and 30 strikeouts. If you get behind in the count (two strikes), that average goes down to .114. Both of those numbers are courtesy of Brooks Baseball.
Since this is a day game, it wouldn’t surprise me if Dusty Baker starts Adam Lind instead of Ryan Zimmerman because Lind is the only player with experience hitting against Miranda (1-for-2, RBI double).