Mariners Game #47 Preview, 5/22/23: Oakland at Seattle

I’m going to be honest, the trident celebration has sat a little funny with me because I distinctly remember the Oakland Athletics using the trident back in 2021 and being annoyed because clearly that should have been our thing. Even at the time, our fellow blog Athletics Nation pondered the implications of Oakland taking what should have been, by all of Getty image rights, Seattle’s symbol. And what happened to the Oakland Athletics after the 2021 season, you might ask? Nothing good, is the answer. Anyway, I’m sure this is all a funny coincidence and not at all a case of astronauts coming back from the moon to tell us trident’s haunted.

Today’s lineups:

If you need a refresher on who any of these folks are for Oakland, definitely check out today’s series preview, as I definitely did because I’m not sure what a Kyle Muller is. I’m also not sure how Oakland got away with having two Tony Kemps at the bottom of the lineup there but if the Mariners cannot defeat Two Tony Kemps they don’t have much business winning this series. As noted in the series preview, the A’s are also welcoming back Seth Brown, one of their two (2) good hitters in 2022, so perhaps this lineup won’t be quite as punchless as we saw last series.

Over on the Mariners side, Luis Castillo will try to recover from his worst start as a Mariner against Boston. He’s going to need to get his pitches out of the middle of the plate, even against Oakland’s more-toothless lineup, to avoid a similar shelling as he suffered at the hands of the Red Sox, as the A’s will likely be similarly aggressive early in the counts. The Mariners will be going with their righty-heavy lineup against the lefty Muller, but Jarred Kelenic remains in the starting nine, albeit at DH.

Injury updates:

• Dylan Moore, having completed the High-A phase of his rehab, will head to Tacoma to complete the Triple-A phase while the Rainiers are in town this week. Head out to Cheney Stadium if you want to catch him in an up-close setting.
• Evan White had yet another procedure today to address his hip issues, cleaning up scar tissue and releasing a tendon that was impinging his joint.
• Andrés Muñoz likely won’t go on a rehab assignment but will instead hopefully join the team on the next road trip. Penn Murfee is on a similar track as Muñoz, but a little behind. Easton McGee will most likely have TJ surgery.

Today’s game info:

Today’s game is at 6:40 PT as the Mariners begin a long stretch of night games at home. Today’s game will be broadcast on good old ROOT Sports, a nice change after being in Atlanta’s megamarket for a hot minute. Aaron Goldsmith and Ryan Rowland-Smith will be on the TV call, which I particularly appreciate because not knowing anything about Muller, it’ll be particularly valuable to have Hyphen breaking down his pitching arsenal. If you’re on the radio, 710 AM Seattle Sports will have Dave Sims and Rick Rizzs on the call there.

Today in Mariners history:

• 1993: Lou Piniella’s 500th career win, a 10-7 victory over the Royals.
• 2012: Team Italy stalwart Alex Liddi hit his first career grand slam in a 5-3 win over the Rangers.
• 2018: Marco Gonzales made it through seven innings for the first time in his career in a 1-0 road win over Oakland. I remember watching this game and getting emotional about it, knowing what Marco had fought through in his recovery from TJ, and then getting emotional all over again when he logged his first ever complete game a month later against the Royals.