Mariners Game #4 Preview, 4/2/2023: CLE at SEA

A stunner, a stinker, and a snoozer so far. What will Game 4 bring? To start, it will bring Marco Gonzales’s first start of the young season. At 57-46, Marco is one win away from tying Joel Piñeiro for eighth in franchise history, a feat he could accomplish today. And he’s 24 strikeouts away from catching James Paxton at the back of the top-10 in strikeouts as a Mariner, a feat he could also accomplish today. In theory.

After a mad rush to get the inagural Julio bobblehead yesterday, today marks Kids Opening Day when everyone 14 and under (or I guess who says they’re 14 or under, what are they going to do? Check your ID?) will receive a Luis Castillo t-shirt. I know it’s always a gamble whether a pitcher will play on their promotional-item day. But I think this is a weird choice since this is one of the only games of the year where even in January, you can be reasonably certain that Castillo wouldn’t pitch. Whatever.

Lineups:

For the Guardians (what are we nicknaming them? The G’s? The Guards? The Statutes? The Traffic Cops?), José Ramírez gets off his feet today as DH. Gabrial Arias will play third base in his stead. Josh Bell moves to first to open up the DH spot, and Josh Naylor gets the afternoon off. I guess homering yesterday really took it out of him.

AJ Pollock gets his Mariner debut today. And with Cal Raleigh back behind the dish, Kelenic slides back down to sixth after hitting fifth yesterday.

Game info:

First pitch: 1:10 PT
TV: ROOT Sports (Sims and Blow)
Radio: 710 AM and mariners dot com (Rizzs and Goldy)

Today in Mariners History:

2001/2011: In 2001, Ichiro made his MLB debut, picking up his first hit in the seventh-inning. On the tenth anniversary in 2011, he had the game-winning RBI for his 2,249th hit and thus passed Edgar Martinez for the most hits ever as a Mariner.

2021: Ten years after that, the Mariners opened the 2021 season with a walk-off walk from Jake Fraley, completing a comeback after being down by five. The game started on April 1, but if you’re on the east coast like me, the game ended after midnight, making this the anniversary of the first mention of CHAOS BALL.