Mariners Game #143, 9/11/23: Angels at Mariners

Well that road trip...could have gone better. But the Mariners return home for a weeklong homestand including a much-needed off-day, and what’s even better is they get a revved-up Jarred Kelenic back to zhuzh up a team that looks, well, pretty pooped. Too pooped to pop, as my grandmother would have said. Also too pooped to pop, apparently: Shohei Ohtani, who is a late scratch from tonight’s game as he continues to deal with an oblique injury.

Lineups:

In addition to the scratched Ohtani, you’ll also notice the absence of Mariner-killer Luis Rengifo, who is out for the remainder of the season with a torn biceps tendon. In his place is Zach Neto, fresh off torturing the Tacoma Rainiers pitching staff. Mike Trout also remains out as he deals with lingering complications from his hamate bone surgery.

Injury updates:

• Tom Murphy, who has a displaced tendon in his thumb, has been shut down again from baseball activities and is in a splint again as they discovered a small fracture in his injured thumb after the swelling went down. After about 10-14 days he’ll be re-imaged to see if there’s been sufficient healing to allow him to ramp back up.
• Marco Gonzales is recovering from his procedure and “feeling good” with an eye to progressing towards a normal spring training next year.
• Emerson Hancock has been dealing with some soreness in his injured shoulder/lat and is in Arizona, where he’ll progress into working on strengthening the area. From there, the team will work on a plan to continue strengthening the area and looking into any biomechanical changes that might need to be made in order to prevent this injury from recurring again.
• Top prospect Felnin Celesten is continuing to ramp up and is “really close” to being cleared to play. He’ll join first-rounder Jonny Farmelo in the ACL “Bridge League,” a 13-game set between the end of the ACL and the start of “instructs”, or the instructional league.

Milestone watch:

With his next home run, Julio will record a 30/30 season, becoming the second player in Mariners history to join the 30/30 club (Alex Rodriguez, 1998). He would also become the fourth player age 22 or younger in MLB history to join said club, along with A-Rod, Trout, and Acuña Jr. If he can do it before Bobby Witt Jr. (28 HR), Julio will also be the 44th player to join this exclusive club.

Today’s game information:

No shenanigans for this series as everything is same bat time, same bat channel: television broadcasts will be on ROOT Sports NW with Aaron Goldsmith and Mike Blowers on the call, and radio broadcasts will be on 710 Seattle Sports with Dave Sims and Rick Rizzs doing the call there.

Both today and tomorrow’s games start at 6:40, with Wednesday’s season series finale at 1:10 before the off-day. Attendance is expected to be strong for all three games, but if Ohtani remains on the sidelines or the Mariners continue to tumble out of playoff contention you might see those numbers dip a little. Things should pick back up for the weekend series against the Dodgers, a three-game set before the Mariners head back on the road again.

Today in Mariners history:

• 1984: Rookie shortstop Danny Tartabull collected his first Major League game-winning RBI in his first Major League at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Mariners defeated the Texas Rangers, 4-3, giving pitcher Karl Best his first MLB victory. Shoutout to commenter Danny Tartabulls On Parade, which remains one of my very favorite handles on this site.
• 1989: Mike Schooler sets a new club record for saves with 27; he would end the season with 33 saves.
• 2022: The Mariners play one of the best games of the season as Julio ties the game with a homer and Eugenio Suárez hits a walkoff home run to complete a series win against the reigning World Champion Atlanta Braves.