With high anxiety subsided, Fister will start Tuesday

Published 9:47 pm Sunday, August 9, 2009

Doug Fister had his nerve endings blunted last night with a soft landing in the ninth inning on his first day in the major leagues.

Tuesday, he’ll make his first career big-league start for the Mariners. Manager Don Wakamatsu announced that within the past hour, surprising nobody. The only other options were Chris Jakubauskas, who pitched 4 2/3 innings lasdt night, and Garrett Olson, who has been a wreck as a starter this season.

Wakamatsu went into last night’s game hoping to get Fister an inning of relief in a non-stressful situation, and he found the perfect opportunity in the ninth of a 10-4 blowout loss. Fister gave up a hit and a walk, and lost the handle on a breaking ball so badly that it sailed high and wide to the backstop. But he also did something no other Mariner pitcher did in the game — he didn’t allow a run.

Otherwise, it’s a fairly slow morning on the news front. Wakamatsu said Carlos Silva will throw off the bullpen mound Tuesday. Also, Russell Branyan is batting sixth today for only the fifth time this season, with Franklin Gutierrez moving up to second against Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir.

Here are the lineups:

MARINERS

Ichiro Suzuki, right field

Franklin Gutierrez, center field

Jose Lopez, second base

Mike Sweeney, DH

Adrian Beltre, third base

Russell Branyan, first base

Jack Wilson, shortstop

Kenji Johjima, catcher

Michael Saudners, left field

Left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-1, 4.22 ERA), starting pitcher

RAYS

Jason Bartlett, shortstop

Carl Crawford, left field

Evan Longoria, third base

Ben Zobrist, second base

Pat Burrell, DH

Willy Aybar, first base

Gabe Kapler, right field

Dioner Navarro, catcher

B.J. Upton, center field

Left-hander Scott Kazmir (6-6, 6.10), starting pitcher