Mariners Game #78 Preview, 6/27/23: WSH at SEA

After finally stringing together a big inning in yesterday’s game and earning a win, the Mariners will look to win their first series win since their last homestand tonight against the Nationals. Today the Mariners will face a rookie pitcher in Jake Irvin (no relation to Cole, unfortunately); if you’re unfamiliar with his stuff, which you probably are, make sure to check out Jake’s scouting report on him in this week’s series preview. The Mariners will counter with their own rookie in Bryan Woo, which will provide an interesting test of the young pitcher’s stuff against the contact-heavy Nationals lineup.

Tonight’s lineups:

Mariners Baseball Information

No surprise, the Nats lineup is once again loaded with lefties, as they’ll be rolling out exactly the same lineup they did against Castillo. The Mariners will also roll with their same lineup from last night, although with Jarred dropped down in the lineup and the switch-hitting Cal Raleigh up higher, giving Irvin three straight lefties at the bottom of the order. I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference, but let’s all find out together!

News and notes:

It’s a lot of bad news out here, fam. This is the Red Wedding of roster moves. Buckle up and let’s go through them.

• ICYMI, Trevor Gott is back. That’s good! But to make room for him, the Mariners DFA’d Chris Flexen. That’s sad, if not entirely unexpected. Either another pitching-desperate team will claim Flexen (probably after he passes through waivers, as he’s expensive enough at $8M that one team probably won’t desperately want to jump the line), or maybe he’ll accept an assignment and go into Tacoma’s rotation, which could desperately use him, as he works to get right again. Read more in John’s transaction analysis here.
• Now for the really bad news. Marco Gonzales is experiencing nerve issues in his elbow and has been shut down for at least another two weeks.
• Penn Murfee is done for the year; he needs UCL surgery.
• Taylor Dollard, who hasn’t pitched for Tacoma since mid-April, is also done for the season, as he’ll need surgery for a torn labrum.

Tonight’s game info:

Tonight’s game starts at 6:40 PT. It will be televised on ROOT Sports NW, once again with Aaron Goldsmith and Angie Mentink on the broadcast, and Dave Sims will again be on the radio call with Rick Rizzs. If you missed hearing the audio of Rizzs singing “Country Roads” last night, do yourself a favor and click here.

Today in Mariners history:

• 1999: Mariners win the final game in the Kingdome, 5-2, over the Texas Rangers.

• 2009: Felíx Hernández records his 700^th career strikeout vs. the Dodgers and, at 23 years and 80 days old, becomes the quickest to 700 Ks since Dwight Gooden in 1986.
• 2018: Edwin Díaz earns his 30th save in an 8-7 win over the Orioles, setting the record for the most in Mariners franchise history prior to the All-Star Break, passing Kazuhiro Sasaki (29, 2001).