Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi has found himself in high-scoring affairs throughout his career, with 16 of his 24 career road starts going over the total. He will, however, look to keep the Houston Astros off the scoreboard Thursday.

Since signing with the Mariners prior to the 2019 season, Kikuchi has a 5.45 ERA with an 8-16 record, while allowing 10 hits and 1.7 home runs per nine innings.

Kikuchi has his deficiencies, but so does the Astros’ pitching staff, which entered Wednesday having given up at least five runs in 10 of the previous 16 games. The Houston bullpen also allowed the seventh-highest home runs per nine innings in MLB: 1.5.

The Astros’ offense is very capable, ranking fourth in the league in runs per game (5) and leading the league with the lowest percentage of at-bats that end in a strikeout.

The Mariners rank ninth in the league in home runs per game on the road, and the Astros pitching staff has given up 1.6 home runs game at home, so both teams are set up to score a lot of runs on Thursday.

The play: Mariners vs. Astros, Total Over 9 runs.