Matt Harrison goes after win No. 17 on Sunday when the Texas Rangers play the rubber match of a three-game set with the Seattle Mariners at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
Pitching on six days' rest, Harrison snapped a personal two-game losing streak on Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians, holding them to a pair of runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings, as he improved to 16-9 to go along with a 3.36 ERA.
"The extra rest did help," Harrison said after that game. "I was able to get my legs back under me. It was a positive note, and hopefully, I can build on this."
With a win on Sunday, Harrison will become the Rangers' first 17-game winner since Scott Feldman in 2009.
Harrison has owned Seattle over the course of his career and is 9-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 14 games (10 starts) against the Mariners since the beginning of 2009. He's won seven starts in a row against them and has beaten Seattle three times this season.
The left-hander's lone loss to Seattle came as a rookie July 31, 2008.
Seattle, meanwhile, will counter with right-hander Blake Beavan, who is 9-9 with a 5.01 ERA. Beavan has alternated wins and losses his last five times out, but hasn't pitched since losing to Boston on Sept. 4.
A former first-round pick of Texas, Beavan is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA in four starts against the Rangers.
Seattle evened this series on Saturday, as Justin Smoak's leadoff homer in the eighth inning proved to be the difference, as the Mariners overcame blowing a six-run lead to post an 8-6 win.
The Rangers had scored a combined five runs over the previous two innings before Smoak launched Tanner Scheppers' (1-1) second pitch over the center- field wall.
Scheppers succeeded Martin Perez, who walked one and struck out five in 4 1/3 hitless innings in relief of the ineffective Feldman.
"I saw Seattle hitters finding holes. It just wasn't his night tonight," Rangers manager Ron Washington said.
Smoak's blast made a winner out of Lucas Luetge (2-1), who gave up the tying run on a David Murphy groundout in the seventh but got rookie Jurickson Profar to ground into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded to end the inning.
The Mariners tacked on an insurance run in the ninth as pinch-runner Munenori Kawasaki scored on a base hit by Smoak.
Tom Wilhelmsen recorded the final four outs to earn his 27th save of the season.
With the loss, the Rangers saw their AL West lead shrink to two games over Oakland.
Texas has won eight of its 15 matchups with the Mariners this season.
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