Ichiro RF Matthews Jr. CF Beltre 3B Young SS Lopez 2B Teixeira 1B Ibanez LF Blalock 3B Everett DH DeRosa RF Petagine 1B Wilkerson LF Johjima C Laird C Reed CF Botts DH Betancourt SS Kinsler 2B --------- ----------
Meche (4-3, 4.40) Millwood (5-3, 4.88)
Good news for the M's - Laynce Nix is in AAA Oklahoma right now, where his .417/.462/1.500 career batting line against Gil can't do any damage. Unfortunately, the rest of the lineup is still there, and Gil's allowed 11 homers in just 24 innings in Arlington, so, yeah. This should be a good test of whether or not he's finally turning a corner.
In other news, the Mariners' team defense has jumped up to +23 runs on the season, per The Hardball Times. This is good enough for fifth in baseball, behind St. Louis, Detroit, Toronto, and San Francisco. The team has a ton of problems, but playing the field certainly isn't one of them.
LET'S GO MARINERS!