SEATTLE — Despite another last-place season, the Mariners will stand alone when the season ends Wednesday night. Their finale against the A’s will be the last regular-season game of the major league season.
The season has always ended on a Sunday afternoon, but Major League Baseball’s schedule is different this season and the final games will be played Wednesday. The Mariners-A’s game will start at 7:10 p.m., 30 minutes later than the Dodgers-Diamondbacks in Arizona.
Why a night game on the last day of the regular season? Here’s why:
An agreement with the City of Seattle requires the Mariners to play no more than six mid-week day games per year. In order to accommodate travel schedules — either the M’s or their opponent needing to play an afternoon game before a cross-country trip to play the next night — they’ve used that six-game allotment.
The Mariners played Wednesday afternoon games this year on April 13 vs. Toronto, April 20 vs. Detroit, May 19 vs. the Angels, June 1 vs. Baltimore, June 29 vs. Atlanta and Aug. 3 vs. Oakland.
It left no choice but to play Wednesday’s season finale at night.
Exit interviews
If there’s a theme to the coming offseason, it’s that each Mariner will leave Seattle with a specific plan to prepare himself for the rigors of a full season next year, whether that’s from a mental, physical or skill standpoint.
Mariners manager Eric Wedge and his coaches are having a lot of meetings with players this week to make sure everyone is on the same page with the offseason goals.
“It’s not with everybody, but most of the young guys,” Wedge said. “We’ve got coaches involved in some of those meetings as well. When it’s all said and done (after Wednesday’s final game), I’ll meet with the staff Thursday. We’ve got a lot going on.”
Each of the coaches will be assigned a group of players to talk with during the offseason, Wedge said.
“It’s not that we’ll be hassling them all the time, but we want to stay in contact with them just to make sure they are doing what they need to be doing,” Wedge said. “This is going to be arguably the most important winter that these guys are going to have. They need to understand what they need to do physically to make sure they’re coming to spring training where they need to be and not leaving anything to chance. Believe you me, I’ll know when I see these guys or talk to these guys.”
Wedge said he and general manager Jack Zduriencik will travel to Arizona next week to connect with minor leaguers and coaches taking part in the fall instructional league in Peoria.
Of note
Wedge said he and Zduriencik have spoken about the coaching staff for 2012 although they’re not ready to make an official announcement. “But I feel very good about our staff. I’ll tell you that much,” Wedge said. … Shortstop Brendan Ryan (neck) and outfielder Casper Wells (equilibrium problems) won’t play in any of the last three games. “When you talk about what you’re getting vs. what you’re not getting, it makes more sense that way,” Wedge said. … When Chris Gimenez’s home run Sunday at Texas set a club record. He became the 23rd different Mariner to hit at least one home run this season, breaking the 2009 record of 22 players. This year’s team also has a club-record 20 players with at least two homers. … With Blake Beavan scheduled to start tonight and Anthony Vasquez on Wednesday night, rookie pitchers will have started 60 games for the Mariners this season.
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