Kikuchi vs. Gilbert: A Season Finale Worth Watching in Seattle

Two teams finishing well below .500 close out their 2025 seasons at T-Mobile Park, but the individual storylines on the mound and at the plate make this one worth your attention. No model read is available for this game, so we're going straight to the matchup itself.

At 62-99, the Angels are wrapping up a brutal season, while Seattle at 75-86 didn't do much better in the standings. Neither club is playing for anything in the standings today, but that doesn't mean the baseball is meaningless — late-season games have a way of revealing character, and this one has a genuinely interesting pitching matchup at its center.

Yusei Kikuchi is expected to start for Los Angeles, taking the mound against his former organization at T-Mobile Park. That's a layer of context that writes itself. On the other side, Logan Gilbert is set to take the mound for Seattle. Two legitimate starters, both with something to prove heading into an offseason, squaring off in what amounts to an audition game for 2026 contract leverage. That's not nothing.

On the offensive side, the Angels' Zach Neto has had a quietly impressive season — 27 home runs and 77 RBI make him the clear standout in an otherwise difficult Angels lineup. Mike Trout is hitting .242, a number that tells its own story about how hard this year has been for one of the game's most decorated players. For Seattle, Randy Arozarena has been the engine all season: .281 average, 26 home runs, and 77 RBI. Arozarena and Neto are essentially mirror images of each other statistically, which makes the individual battle between those two hitters and the opposing pitching staffs the most compelling thread to pull. No validated model read exists for this game, so rather than lean on a projection, lean on this: Kikuchi knows this ballpark, Gilbert has been one of Seattle's steadiest arms, and the two best position players on the field are evenly matched. Watch the at-bats, not the standings.