The Mariners are in Kansas City and I’m not. But Garrett Olson is.
The Mariners made official within the hour what we’d expected since Tuesday evening, that left-hander Garrett Olson would fill Shawn Kelley’s roster sport after Kelley literally went down in Tuesday’s game with a strained oblique.
Officially, the Mariners today placed Kelley on the 15-day disabled list and called up Olson from Class AAA Tacoma. Olson went 2-2 witha 3.08 earned run average in five starts for the Rainiers. While he fills Kelley’s place on the roster, he definitely won’t replace Kelley’s role in the bullpen.
Olson could be a much-needed reinforcement tonight if Carlos Silva struggles early.
Kelley, despite being a rookie, had ascended quickly into a prominent late-inning reliever, with a 1.54 ERA in 10 appearances. Now the Mariners must push others up, and it will be interesting to see how manager Don Wakamatsu handles it.
There’s still hard-throwing right-handers Mark Lowe and David Aardsma, and closer Brandon Morrow is expected to come off the disabled list Saturday. However, don’t expect Morrow to come back throwing 97 mph peas on the corners at the knees. He typically has taken two, three, four appearances or so before regaining his sharpness, and until that happens things could be adventurous if not ugly.
In Morrow’s last Arizona outing against the Indians in Goodyear, he couldn’t keep the ball down and, when he wan’t walking hitters, they were hitting him hard. Then there was the second game of the in Minnesota when Morrow walked three and Miguel Batista allowed all of them to score in the ninth after the Mariners had led 5-3.
Buckle up for this one.
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