After the shellacking the Mariners took yesterday in a 10-0 loss to Cleveland, maybe it’s a good thing today’s game also isn’t on television.
I will admit to being a little sad not to see Kansas City top prospect Bobby Witt Jr., who I’ve never actually seen play in a game. Apparently he smacked a homer that went 484 feet the other day, though, so probably Mariners starter Ljay Newsome won’t be too excited to see him. Also: Andrew Benintendi and Carlos Santana in royal blue! That’s weird! Also, Salvy Perez is in the lineup but not catching. Also weird, although understandable. There’s only so many miles left on those knees.
In case you can’t tell, the Royals will be playing their A squad, led by Danny Duffy on the mound. The Mariners, less so, although the only real clear substitutions are Haggerty in at short and Walton at third, as well as a pronounced lack of Mitch Haniger in the outfield. Also Taylor Trammell isn’t in the starting lineup today, so I don’t know who is going to provide the extra-base hit for the Mariners.
On the mound, Ljay Newsome will get the start, followed by LHP Ian McKinney. RHPs Gerson Bautista, Taylor Guerrieri whose name I still cannot spell correctly on the first try, and Matt Magill are all slated to pitch as well, although the math whizzes among you will have noted that that’s just five pitchers. Newsome will probably go three, and I’m guessing McKinney, who is being worked as a starter, will get another two, with each of the other relievers getting one, adding up to an eight-inning contest. The Royals have been one of those teams pushing the fan experience side of ST, though—no rollover innings, etc—so maybe they’ll want to play all nine, in which case I could see McKinney getting pushed to three. I’ll try to remember to update this if I figure it out but I’m writing the game thread well in advance and no one really reads these things anyway.
The game, which starts at 12:05, is on a delay on 710, so you’ll need to either listen through the Mariners site, MLB TV or At-Bat, or you could pull up KWOD 1660 in Kansas City (K-WOD!). I just pulled it up and heard a commercial for Elysian Space Dust, a reminder that they’ve gone national. Sigh.