Welcome to another glorious La Piedra Day here at LL. We’ve got a matinée game for your enjoyment versus the Texas Rangers as the Mariners go for a series win following an emphatic shutout victory last night. I sure hope the Rangers enjoy facing all this great starting pitching because hoo boy, the Mariners have another one for them today as Luis Castillo will hopefully be making rueful fist gestures from the mound shortly.

For those of you who have been grumbling for a shake up at the top of the order, the Mariners said, “Say no more, fam.”

Lineups:

Julio is batting sixth today with J.P. Crawford, who is having a dynamite, OBP-rich season at the plate so far, taking over at lead off. Will this be ongoing? Not sure yet. Will this slight fuel Julio’s approach to the plate and drive him to hit .300 the rest of the season. That sure would be cool! If you haven’t, I highly recommend reading Zach Mason’s timely piece from yesterday about Julio’s scuffling and unlucky start to the season.

In other news, Teo continues to dwell in the bottom-middle of the order, AJ Pollock is DH-ing today, and Kolten Wong returns after a few days off following a minor wrist injury this past Saturday.

Notes from Scott’s presser:

Today’s game info:

Game time: 12:40 PM PT
TV: ROOT Sports Northwest, MLB.TV where available
Radio: Seattle Sports 710 AM

Today in Mariners history:

Hey, I remember watching this!

• 2015 - Felix Hernandez recorded his 2,000th career strikeout and improved to a career-best 6-0 in a 4-3 win over Oakland…The Mariners swept the A’s for the first time since Aug 1-3, 2011…Hernandez becomes 4th youngest player to record 2,000 career strikeouts…Hernandez has won 7-straight decisions dating back to last season, going 7-0, 1.67 ERA with 57 strikeouts over that stretch…He also recorded his 131st win, passing Randy Johnson on the Mariners all-time wins list.