The Seattle Mariners are in the middle of one hell of a dog fight in the American League Playoff Race. Tonight they find themselves sitting 4 games back of the first place Houston Astros and 1.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot. But their is still a ton of baseball left and they will soon get back one of their stars.

Robinson Cano is almost back from his 80 game suspension for violating the MLB's Performance Enhancing Drug Policy. Cano has only played in 39 the teams 119 games. He has made some minor league starts as he prepares for his possibly triumphant return. Cano has been one of the best players in the American League since 2005 when he started with the New York Yankees. He was a sure fire Hall of Fame player but that is now all in question since he failed his drug test. 

How good will he be after this time away from the team? Only time will tell.

Tonight, Marco Gonzales will get the start at pitcher to try and shut down the A's line up. It has been an excellent season for Gonzales who is 12-7 with an ERA of 3.79. He has a fantastic strike out (121) to walk ratio (25) and is having a career year.

The A's will counter with Sean Manaea. The left handed pitcher has had an up and down year that included a no hitter earlier this season. Overall he is 10-8 with an ERA of 3.50 and a WHIP of 1.05. He will have his hands full with the 5th best batting average in the league in the Mariners. But that has not always translated into runs as they sit at only 21st. The A's are 8th.

One of the strengths for the A's is their defense, especially at home. That has kept them in several games this year, even though they were out matched on paper. Tonight's game is the first of an extremely important 3 game series. First pitch is schedule for 9:05pm Central Standard Time.

The A's are favorites at -123 and the over/under is 8 runs.