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Posts Tagged ‘lineup’

Jason Vargas is done after six innings, looking OK after the fourth. Of course, the five runs allowed by the fourth gave his team virtually no chance of winning the game. It’s still 5-0 for the Red Sox in the bottom of the seventh.

The Mariners had three hits in the top of the seventh, but a lineout double play and no situational hitting helped doom the final chance the m’s likely had of making this a contest.

5:20 p.m.: Jason Vargas is not giving his team a chance tonight, trailing 5-0 after a pair of homers by Daniel Nava and Kelly Shoppach in the fourth inning. Vargas is known to give up a lot of fly balls and he’s getting hurt by them in this smaller ballpark. That said, a lot of the contact off him has been ripped hard, so the ballpark ain’t a good excuse.

Eric Wedge apparently agrees, as Hisashi Iwakuma is now warming up.

Ichiro hit an infield single off Jon Lester’s glove after he’d retired 11 in a row to start the game. Lester promptly ended the inning on another groundout, then began the fifth with one more before Kyle Seager flew out to right moments ago — the first ball hit out of the infield by the Mariners tonight.

4:59 p.m.: We’re through three innings and the M’s still trail 2-0. Jon Lester has retired the first nine batters faced on five groundouts, three strikeouts and a popout.

Jason Vargas allowed a pair of hard hit infield singles in the second, but the damage was mitigated because in between the hits, Marlon Byrd was thrown out by Jesus Montero on a steal attempt. Nice throw by Montero to nab his second runner in 10 tries this season.

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View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog

Today is the day Andy Pettitte makes his return to the New York Yankees after skipping the 2011 season. The Mariners have responded by going with the best right-handed lineup they can come up with.

It includes a surprise — Casper Wells hitting second.

With Brendan Ryan looking lost at the plate and precious few options from the right side, manager Eric Wedge is rolling the Wells dice. Yeah, he has Chone Figgins, but a .154 batting average and .406 OPS as a right-handed bat wasn’t working in his favor.

Ryan is out of the doghouse, for today at least. But he’s been dropped down to ninth in the order, which is probably where he should have been all along.

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View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog

Here are tonight’s lineups:

Indians

Michael Brantley CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Travis Hafner DH
Jayson Nix 3B
Matt LaPorta 1B
Trevor Crowe LF
Jason Donald 2B
Lou Marson C

Mitch Talbot RHP (8-11, 4.61)

Mariners

Ichiro RF
Chone Figgins 2B
Russell Branyan Dh
Jose Lopez 3B
Casey Kotchman 1B
Josh Bard C
Michael Saunders CF
Matt Tuiasosopo LF
Josh Wilson SS

RHP David Pauley (2-6, 4.25)

The original Mariners lineup had Franklin Gutierrez in center, Matt Tuiasosopo at third, Michael Saunders in left, and Jose Lopez on the bench. But Gutierrez was feeling ill and had to be scratched, causing a chain reaction of changes by manager Daren Brown. Lopez was inserted at third base, Tui moved to left field, and Saunders moved to center field.

It will be the first time in his major-league career Saunders has played center at Safeco Field, though he had considerable experience in center field as a minor-leaguer.

“I’ve seen Saunders in center field, and I’m comfortable with him in center,” Brown said. “That’s not saying there might not be a mistake. I’ve said it before with our younger guys, they’re going to make mistakes at times. You learn from them and move on.”

“He actually played a good center field in Tacoma the last couple of years. Same thing with Tui in left. I’ve seen him play left and I’m comfortable with him there.”

The Mariners will try to break one streak today: They have scored three or fewer runs in their last eight consecutive games. They are 3-5 in those games.

View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog