• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Mariners, Pirates begin brief set in Pittsburgh

May 7, 2013 - 2:41 PM (Sports Network) - Right-handed veteran Aaron Harang faces the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time in a Seattle uniform on Tuesday night when the Mariners visit PNC Park to open a brief two-game interleague series.

Harang, who'll turn 35 on Thursday, has made 25 career starts against the Pirates, most during his stint with the Cincinnati Reds between 2003 and 2010 - during which he won as many as 16 games two times.

He's 15-6 against the Pirates, his most wins against any opponent, and has posted a 4.24 earned run average against them across 159 1/3 innings of work.

Harang, who's also pitched in San Diego and Los Angeles since leaving the Reds, was acquired by the Mariners in an April trade with the Colorado Rockies - to whom he'd been traded by the Dodgers five days earlier.

He dropped his initial three starts as a Mariner, but earned win No. 1 on May 1 with six innings of two-run ball against Baltimore in an 8-3 victory.

In three previous starts, he'd gone 0-3 while allowing 16 runs in 12 2/3 innings.

The Pirates send righty James McDonald to the mound in search of a first win since April 20.

The Californian opened with two wins and two losses in his first four starts, but has since picked up no-decisions against Philadelphia and Milwaukee while allowing 13 hits and 10 runs in 10 innings.

Pittsburgh is 3-3 in the six games he's pitched, and opponents are hitting him for a .252 average, which matches his career number through 131 big-league outings.

McDonald has faced the Mariners once, in relief, and allowed three hits in two scoreless innings.

On Sunday in Toronto, Mark DeRosa went 3-for-5 with a three-run homer and Brandon Morrow lasted eight strong innings as the Blue Jays avoided a three- game series sweep to the Mariners with a 10-2 victory at Rogers Centre.

Robert Andino and Kyle Seager drove in Seattle's only two runs. Joe Saunders (2-4) was tagged for seven runs on nine hits, including both Toronto homers, over five innings. All of his losses this season have come on the road.

The Mariners had won three straight and six of seven coming in.

"(Morrow) mixed it up quite a bit," Seager said. "He has good stuff. We were able to get a couple guys on but they didn't give us too many opportunities, and he got through."

In Pittsburgh, Danny Espinosa drove in three runs and Tyler Moore added a three-run blast as Washington downed the Pirates, 6-2, in the finale of a three-game set.

Starling Marte homered and Russell Martin posted an RBI double for the Pirates, but Wandy Rodriguez (2-2) gave up three runs on six hits despite seven strikeouts in defeat.

The Mariners won two of three games when the teams last played in 2007 in Seattle, and swept a three-game series in Pittsburgh in 2004.