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This afternoon will see the Mariners hoping to take the series from the Twins before heading down to Texas for an extended road trip around the AL West. And if you haven't heard yet, it's going to be started by one Roenis Elias, fresh from Tacoma after Hisashi Iwakuma was sent to the 15-day DL with a strained lat.
Elias will be making his first big-league start of 2015, and while you may remember that fearless Cuban lefty who shut down the Tigers in a complete game shutout last season, it would perhaps pain you to know that he hasn't been doing too well in his three starts down in AAA so far. His K/9 is the lowest it has been since his 11 innings in rookie ball back in 2011, and he's trotting out fun numbers like a BABIP of .346 and a FIP of 6.32. Then again, he also owns two wins and has been no worse than Iwakuma himself, so what are you going to do?
Nelson Cruz will spend the day out in right while Seth Smith bats second as the DH. Sucre will do the catching and you should thank your lucky stars it's a getaway day with a good pitch framer behind the dish, and also that the M's are playing the Twins. Elias probably couldn't have picked a better day to make his first start of the season.
Game info
- Twins @ Mariners, 1:10 PM PST
- TV: ROOT
- Radio: 710 ESPN, 97.3 KIRO
- Online: mlb.tv