10:05 AM UPDATE: We have a rainout, and the game won’t be rescheduled. The team will work out this morning in the covered facilities.
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9:30 AM UPDATE: I’ve inserted the Padres’ lineup below, although it may be moot because the skies have really opened up. Even if they get today’s game in, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the lineups change in order to keep some key players off what’s sure to be a wet field. Stay tuned.
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They say it’s raining at the airport this morning although, as George Carlin (Google him kids, because he’s not just the guy from Thomas the Tank) might have said, I don’t know anybody who plays baseball at the airport.
Here in Peoria, today’s game against the Padres could be in trouble because there’s a 70 percent chance of rain. If they do play, we’ll see Franklin Gutierrez in center field for the first time. He’s been held back because of a sore shoulder.
Otherwise, all the regulars are in the lineup except shortstop Jack Wilson, who came out of Thursday’s game because of a tight right hamstring, and catcher Rob Johnson, who had hip surgery in the offseason. Wilson said yesterday that he’s fine and Johnson, after a bout of soreness last week, could be in a game by the middle of this week.
Here’s the Mariners’ lineup:
Ichiro Suzuki, right field
Chone Figgins, second base
Milton Bradley, left field
Ken Griffey Jr., DH
Jose Lopez, third base
Casey Kotchman, first base
Franklin Gutierrez, center field
Josh Bard, catcher
Josh Wilson, shortstop
Left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith, starting pitcher
And the Padres’ lineup:
Tony Gwynn, center field
David Eckstein, second base
Chase Headley, third base
Kyle Blanks, left feld
Oscar Salazar, first base
Will Venable, right field
Nick Hundley, catcher
Chad Huffman, DH
Everth Cabrera, shortstop
Left-hander Clayton Richard, starting pitcher.
In a few minutes, the Mariners will seal themselves behind closed (but hopefully not soundproof) doors for their version of American Idol. Based on some of the rehearsing I’ve seen and heard, there might be more William Haung than David Cook.
There was a grass skirt with coconuts and a nervous Steve Baron, and Matt Tuiasosopo walked through the clubhouse with a tattoo pattern scribbled on his face. In a hallway, bullpen coach John Wetteland practiced a few chords on an acoustic guitar, which tells me there probably won’t be any System of a Down (which reminds me of a funny scene in the coaches’ room a few days ago when Wetteland had bench coach Ty VanBurkleo cranked some System of a Down on his computer. VanBurkleo obliged, and within seconds he and Wettleland were slashing their air guitars and bobbing their heads like Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar.
And as a warmup act, Mariners president Chuck Armstrong just walked through the media workroom and serenaded us with the Purdue alma mater and a heavy dose of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. The guy was pretty good and, when Larry LaRue of the Tacoma News Tribune joined in, it was one of the best country duets I’ve heard since Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton.
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