Tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET the American League East leading Baltimore Orioles (60-47) will head to Seattle where the Mariners (56-52) are trying to keep up their pace and maintain their position in the wildcard race. Watch the game online by clicking this link; Orioles fans can listen to the game on 1090 WBAL while Mariners fans may catch the radio broadcast on 710 ESPN. The Orioles will send Bruce Chen (11-3, 3.92 ERA) to the mound against Roenis Elias (8-8, 4.31 ERA).
Both teams made moves at the trade deadline on Thursday. The Orioles acquired a strikeout machine in left-handed reliever Andrew Miller, while the Mariners added right-handed pop in the outfield through two separate trades. They picked up Chris Denorfia from the San Diego Padres, then got involved in Thursday's blockbuster three-team deal that netted them Austin Jackson from the Detroit Tigers.
All three players are expected to be available tonight.
The Mariners were in more dire need of their moves than the Orioles were, but it's unclear whether they did enough to compete with the stacked A's and Angels, both ahead of them in the AL West.
"We were looking for right-handed bats," general manager Jack Zduriencik told MLB's official website. "Now we've got a leadoff pure center fielder (in Jackson) and that's going to help a lot, and Denorfia has really good numbers against left-handed pitching.
"He's a tough kid that's been through the playoffs and knows it. Same thing with Austin Jackson, he's been there, done that. So bringing the veteran experience to the ballclub at this time of the year was a really important factor."
Jackson's numbers are underwhelming this year, but he had been picking up the pace in Detroit. In his last 19 games Jackson had been hitting .388 with eight doubles while scoring 15 runs.
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