After an off-day on Monday following a long road trip, the Mariners are back home for the week. As Jake pointed out in the series preview, these next six games against the Rangers—split up only by the Toronto series in-between—are the last chances the Mariners will get to beat up on the AL West’s worst team, and an opportunity to undo some of the damage done in the Wild Card standings by their poor showing against a depleted Yankees squad. Let’s hope Jonah Heim stubs his toe really hard getting out of the shower or something.
Kolby Allard, who never seems to have a good time against the Mariners, faces off against Logan Gilbert, looking to rebound after a couple of shaky outings. Tom Murphy has been assigned to do the catching instead of Big Bert’s switch-hitting battery buddy Cal Raleigh, and certified lefty-masher Luis Torrens is in the lineup as the DH as Seattle runs out their most righty-heavy lineup against the lefty Allard, which admittedly looks much stronger with the addition of the switch-hitting Toro.
Tonight’s game starts at 7:10 PT, a return to a good old-fashioned evening game after a week playing in the Eastern time zone, and can be found on 710 ESPN on the radio, ROOT Sports NW on TV, and MLB TV for streaming if you’re an out-of-area subscriber.