Mariners Game #128 Preview, 8/25/23: KCR at SEA

It’s a home Friday in August and you know what that means: City Connect jerseys and Fireworks Night. It promises to be a full house, too, as parking prices near the stadium already started with the digit ‘7’ as I was walking to the stadium.

The Mariners start a series against the Royals, who played them tough during the series in Kansas City. The Royals’ uber-aggressiveness at the plate proved a tough matchup for the Mariners’ pitching staff, which puts the ball in the strike zone more than any other team, although thankfully the Royals pitching staff was all too ready to give those runs right back. Tonight, however, the Mariners will face Brady Singer again, who gave them a tough go during the last meetup, no-hitting the Mariners into the seventh inning. The M’s hitters will have to find some adjustments against Singer and not depend on a bullpen breakdown again to get them back into the game—Singer’s start was Kansas City’s lone win against the M’s during the four-game set.

The Royals will see the only regular member of the rotation they didn’t see during the four-game set in Bryce Miller, whose secondary stuff will have to be on point tonight to avoid surrendering the longball to the super-aggressive Royals hitters.

Lineups:

Injury updates:

• In a pregame media session, AGM Justin Hollander said that Jarred Kelenic has been meeting or exceeding all his benchmarks for rehab and is on track to join the Rainiers, probably at the end of the month. Sadly, Tacoma will be on the road in Salt Lake and Oklahoma City for the first half of September, but it’s good news nonetheless.
• Marco Gonzales had the procedure to reduce the tension around his anterior interosseous nerve; the surgery went well and assuming a normal rehab process, he should be on track for a regular spring training.
• Tom Murphy has been given clearance to ramp up his baseball activities to address a tendon in his thumb that had become displaced. Murphy will focus on pain management with the hope he’ll be able to return at some point this season, with any major rehab or procedure, if necessary, able to wait until the off-season.
• Emerson Hancock had a PRP injection to address what is a “grade one plus” strain in his lat, but the good news is there is no structural damage or tears. Per Hollander, the team will use the time while Emerson is down to try to get to the root cause of this recurring injury and come up with a plan for avoiding this kind of injury in the future.
• RHP Ty Adcock had a PRP injection to try to calm down the soreness he was feeling in his medial elbow; there’s no timetable for his return.
• Prospect Felnin Celestin is at “80 percent” and hitting off the Trajekt machine in Arizona; his projected return to game action is in mid-September, and the club hopes to get him into “some sort of fall off-season in game-like situations,” although it’s unclear if that will be traditional instructional league ball.

Tonight’s game information:

As mentioned up top, tonight’s game is looking like it’s going to be very well-attended. I get it: I also hate that the games are on Apple TV. Yes, tonight’s game is on Apple TV, so if you aren’t a subscriber and don’t have a friend you can hit up, make sure to call ahead to make sure whatever bar or establishment you’re going to has it, as in my experience it’s been tricky to find ones that do (Leny’s in Greenlake had it last I checked). The Apple TV crew will be Alex Faust and Ryan Spilborghs, with Tricia Whitaker as field reporter. If you don’t have Apple TV and will be listening on the radio, Rick Rizzs and Aaron Goldsmith will provide your friendly voices there. Game time is 7:10 PT, because fireworks.

As a reminder, tomorrow is a day game (1:10) because of the Seahawks preseason game, and while it will be on ROOT Sports as per usual, the audio broadcast shifts over to 770 KTTH. Sunday’s game is also a day game as per usual, and will be on all the old familiar channels.

Today in Mariners history:

• 1990: Edgar Martínez steals his only base of the year in a game at Kansas City, in fantastic fashion as he swipes home on a double steal with Ken Griffey Jr. I would be very down for Mike Ford and Julio repeating this feat tonight.
• 1996: Edgar Martínez collects his 1,000^th career hit. In the same game, Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. hit back-to-back homers, breaking the record for most times hitting consecutive homers in a season by teammates.
• 2001: The Arthur Rhodes earring game. Arthur Rhodes Did Nothing Wrong.

• 2010: Félix becomes the third-youngest pitcher in MLB history to collect 1,000 strikeouts.
• 2018: Denard Span hits a broken-bat home run into the hot tub at Chase Stadium to help boost the Mariners to a comeback win, while Edwin Díaz earns his 50th save of the season. Revisit Gotty’s recap here.