SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners will play the first of a four-game series against its American League West archrivals, the Houston Astros, at 6:40 p.m. PT on Friday.

The Mariners will enter the game 4-9 and are looking to snap a five-game losing streak. And they'll have to do that without one of their best hitters.

Third baseman Brendan Donovan was absent from the lineup for Friday's game. According to a pregame interview with manager Dan Wilson, Donovan is out dealing with an illness that he contracted on the tail end of the team's recent six game road trip, which ended against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.

The illness is currently limited to just Donovan, according to Wilson.

Donovan has slashed .316/.422/.605 with a 1.027 OPS through 11 games. He's hit two doubles and three home runs with five RBIs.

Not only will Seattle be attempting to wake up the offense (.581 OPS — 30th in the major leagues) without Donovan, it will be attempting to do so against an unfamiliar pitcher.

Friday will mark the first time this season the Mariners have faced Houston starter Tatsuya Imai.

The 27-year-old signed a three-year, $54 million deal with the Astros this offseason after a nine-season stint in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball with the Saitama Seibu Lions. 

Imai will enter Friday coming off his second and most productive major league start. He struck out nine batters, walked three, allowed three hits and didn't allow a run in 5.2 innings of work against the Athletics on April 4.

Imai's latest outing drew attention for his "wrong way" slider in which his slider broke in a way atypical for the offering.

Wilson reaffirmed his belief in his offense's ability to bounce back, whether it was Imai on the hill or not.

"Obviously we will look at that," Wilson said in a pregame interview Friday. "I think, offensively, we have to get back to what we do. We talk a lot about identity here and that's a big part of what we need to get back to here. ... Doesn't necessarily matter who's on the mound. Just getting back to putting our at-bats together, back-to-back, being tough outs and those kinds of things. That's what I know our guys will be prepared to do tonight."

Seattle's lineup will likely have a solid pitching performance to work with if Friday starter Emerson Hancock's last two outings are an indication. The 2020 first-round MLB Draft pick has 14 strikeouts in 12.2 innings across two quality starts this year.

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