6 years agoSeattle Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi was a mixed bag in Monday's tilt versus the Indians. He gave up two runs in the first inning and then served up a solo homer to Jose Ramirez in the third to put the M's behind early. Kikuchi settled down after that, only allowing one batter to reach after the third inning as he finished his evening with five strikeouts and three walks over six frames of work. The long ball has doomed the Japanese rookie so far in the majors, as he's now given up five taters in 27 2/3 innings. Kikuchi will undoubtedly have to improve on this metric to have better success in lowering his 4.23 ERA. He'll be in a good spot to do so in his next outing against the Angels, who are last in the league in slugging percentage against lefties.--Riley Mrack - RotoBaller
Source: MLB.com