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Today was a fun day celebrating Segura's extension, so unfortunately it's going to be followed up by a game that might not be awesome, because for every good thing a Mariner fan is given, they must also receive the karmic equivalent of this video:
Servais said Cruz could miss a couple of games with the sore calf. He underwent a MRI on it earlier today
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) June 7, 2017
Welp. This is especially sucky because the Twins are starting a young LHP tonight in Mejia against whom Cruz would have probably feasted. Booooo no fun baseball. Also, what a bummer the way these pitching probables worked out in this series. Instead of getting to see two staff aces in Paxton/Berrios and two young lefties in Mejia/Miranda, we're seeing the pitching matchup equivalent of when you get home from vacation and it's too late to go to the store, so I guess peanut butter and jelly on a tortilla is fine? The Mariners have loaded up their lineup with righties as much as possible (hello Carlos Ruiz), but Cruz will be missed.
Hey Tyler Smith, congratulations on making your first MLB start. As Jake noted in the series preview, Mejia has four decent pitches but has struggled with his control in the majors this year, running a BB% of 12%, so it will be key for the second half of the order tonight to be selective with their pitches. It's always important for the Mariners offense to score runs but no more so than with a beleaguered Yovani Gallardo on the mound. YoGa is in the doghouse lately and knows it, so it will be interesting to see how he responds to an aggressive, hot-hitting Twins lineup. And by "interesting" I mean "do we also get to see Tyler Smith make his MLB pitching debut tonight."
Tonight's game is on ROOTNW and ESPN 710, as per usual. Game time is 7:10 PST. For some reason when I googled "Mariners broadcast schedule" to double-check the info it directed me to this page from 2010 declaring that there are no games scheduled for 2011, although honestly after 2010 I would have canceled the season too.