Mariners Game #48 Preview, 5/23/23: Oakland at Seattle
After an offensive outburst last night, the Mariners will attempt to keep the good vibes rolling against the floundering A’s.
Today’s lineups:
Game ✌️ on a ✌️sday. pic.twitter.com/cOT61290E4 — Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) May 23, 2023
Boooooo no Caballero when today is unofficially José Caballero Appreciation Day. It’s especially a bummer to lose the Caballero-Crawford OBP-powered pipeline to turn the lineup over. Maybe nine-hole hitter Tom Murphy can find it in his heart to crush a righty pitcher instead of a lefty.
The A’s announced today that they’ve optioned Kyle Muller, who the Mariners hit around pretty good last night, back to Triple-A Las Vegas, for him to get hit around some more in PCL parks. Rude. Trevor May has been activated off the IL.
The A’s are starting one (1) lefty against Marco, which portends to be a tough matchup for Seattle’s southpaw. The Mariners hitters will have to make hay today off A’s starter Luis Medina, who was acquired as part of the Frankie Montas trade after the Yankees were unwilling to part with some top prospect talent to acquire the services of Luis Castillo. On the bright side, that trade gave Oakland a brand new right-out-of-the-box rotation with Ken Waldichuk, JP Sears, and Medina all assuming places in Oakland’s starting rotation. On the less-bright side, probably only Waldichuk out of that crew is a surefire MLB starter, and Medina is the fringiest of the bunch, likely profiling best as a hard-throwing reliever due to his extreme command issues. So far this year he’s actually annihilated his command issues, walking the league average or below, but it’s come at the cost of his big strikeout stuff as he’s worked to introduce a changeup to round out an MLB-capable arsenal. The Mariners hitters would be well served to be patient and wait for a fastball that catches too much plate, as Medina has been wont to put it there often this season, while attempting to lay off his generally poorly-commanded secondaries.
Tonight’s game info:
Tonight’s game starts at 6:40 PT, and if you would like to come on out to the ballpark on a lark to take advantage of the remnants of the sunshine, tickets can be had both from the Mariners and on the secondary market quite cheaply at present. Tonight’s game will be televised on ROOT Sports NW with Angie Mentink and Aaron Goldsmith on the call, so if you happen to be out at a bar make sure to ask them to put the sound on so you can hear Queen Angie. Rick Rizzs and Dave Sims will handle radio duties on 710 AM Seattle Sports.
Today in Mariners history:
Source: Lookout Landing
