Seattle Mariners' Biggest Rival Suffers Major Injury News as Division Battle Turns Up
Entering play on Wednesday night, the Seattle Mariners lead the Houston Astros by 2.0 games in the American League West race.
The M's haven't won a division title since 2001 and will need to find a way to stave off Houston if they are going to accomplish the goal of winning the division and getting guaranteed home games in the American League playoffs.
As they try to do that, the Astros are now dealing with another set of poor injury news.
Per Chandler Rome of 'The Athletic' on social media:
Lance McCullers Jr has been shut down after his arm wasn’t responding well between bullpen sessions, Joe Espada said. McCullers won’t throw for a few days while the team formulates a plan for what’s next.
Lance McCullers Jr has been shut down after his arm wasn’t responding well between bullpen sessions, Joe Espada said. McCullers won’t throw for a few days while the team formulates a plan for what’s next.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 9, 2024
It's been a trying career for McCullers, who is exceptionally talented when healthy. The 30-year-old missed the entire 2019 season with injury, most of 2022 and all of 2023.
Lifetime, he's 49-32 with a 3.48 ERA. He dominated the Mariners in the 2022 playoffs, throwing 6.0 shutout innings at T-Mobile Park in the Game 3 that eliminated the M's from the playoffs.
He helped the Astros win the World Series in the 2017 season. Though Mariners fans undoubtedly want to see the M's win the division, they do not want to see it come at the expense of players hurting their careers.
In addition to McCullers's injury, the Astros are out Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy for the year. Luis Garcia is battling back from Tommy John surgery as well, and recently we learned that JP France would miss the season.
The Mariners will play the Padres on Wednesday night while the Astros host the Miami Marlins.
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