ROSTER UPDATE: Reitsma right back to the DL, Jake Woods recalled. But remember, Rafael Soriano was criminally unreliable.
Ichiro CF Sizemore CF Vidro DH Michaels LF Guillen RF Blake 3B Ibañez LF Hafner DH Johjima C Peralta SS Broussard 1B Garko 1B Beltre 3B Nixon RF Lopez 2B Barfield 2B Betancourt E-6 Shoppach C ---------- ----------
Baek (3-2, 4.91) Byrd (6-2, 3.80)
With only four walks in 64 innings, Paul Byrd is arguably the most prolific strike-thrower in Major League Baseball. This is good news. The Mariner lineup is also way better against finesse pitchers than their more masculine peers (.773 OPS vs. finesse, .726 OPS vs. power), so maybe our odds are a little better today than most of us thought. Of course, Cha Baek could very easily get eaten alive by this lineup from Hell, and there's no JJ to save us at the end, but at least we might be able to keep up this time.
LET'S GO MARINERS!!