Seattle Mariners Manager Comments on Interesting Draw of Opposing Pitchers
SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners are set to kick off a four-game series against the Texas Rangers at 6:40 p.m. PT on Thursday.
The series has potential do-or-die implications. Seattle was four games behind the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West before Thursday's game and four games out of the third AL Wild Card spot.
The Mariners have shown great signs on offense over the last week. They had connected for double-digit hits in four of their last six games before Thursday and had an efficient five runs on five hits on Wednesday.
But the Seattle offense will have to keep going against an interesting stretch of starting pitching from Texas.
Kumar Rocker, the No. 95 prospect in all of baseball (according to MLB Pipeline) makes his major league debut on Thursday. Jacob deGrom is making his season debut on Friday after Tommy John surgery has kept him out since June 2023. Max Scherzer is returning on Saturday after being on the injured list since July 30. And there's not even confirmation who will be Texas' starter on Sunday. Could be Cody Bradford, Andrew Heaney, Jack Leiter or Nathan Eovaldi.
TEX Kumar Rocker will make his MLB Debut today -- 16 months after needing TJ
— Josh Inglis (@Covers_josh) September 12, 2024
Texas doesn't want to push him past 50 IP this year (currently at 36.2) and he will likely go just 75ish pitches or 5 IP.
He has a 47:4 K:BB over his last 29.2 MiLB innings.
I'm waiting for his u3.5… pic.twitter.com/kWrPEnQyXU
Mariners manager Dan Wilson commented before Thursday's game about preparing for an interesting Rangers rotation.
"We know we're in for a long stretch here the rest of September," Wilson said. "And we're going to face good starters every night. When you mention deGrom and you mention Scherzer — two of the best in the game for a long period of time. Offensively, we need to continue to do the things that we've been doing: create traffic, get them in. We played some small ball here and there, as well. So anything we can do offensively against guys like that is going to be important."
Wilson also went into specifics about preparing to face a player like Kumar, who's making his major league debut.
"I think a lot of us in baseball — we rely on history and what we've seen and what we've been in the box for," Wilson said. "Not a lot of history there with a guy like (Rocker). So it takes a little while to understand what he's got and see it up close. But we've had a couple debuts here lately and I think our guy will adjust to it, communicate about it and we'll be off and running."
It will be interesting to see what kind of rust deGrom and Scherzer have (if any) and what Rocker looks like against a Seattle offense that's struggled as a whole this season, but has been much improved over the last two weeks.
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