Opponent: Toronto Blue Jays
When: 7:05 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: Fox Sports Net (cable)
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Joel Pioneer (1-6, 5.74 earned run average) vs. left-hander Ted Lilly (3-2, 4.66).
Halladay hurting
Blue Jays right-hander Roy Halladay was scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday night after he experienced discomfort while playing catch earlier in the day.
“We’re just not going to take any chances with him,” manager Carlos Tosco said. “We’re going to let him get checked out by the doctors and go from there.”
Halladay, who won the American League Cy Young Award last year, was 5-4 with a 3.58 ERA in 11 starts.
The Blue Jays started left-hander Jason Kershner, causing Mariners manager Bob Melvin to adjust a lineup that originally was heavy with left-handed and switch hitters.
Third baseman Scott Spiezio, a switch hitter who can’t bat right-handed because of a strained oblique, was pulled in favor of Jolbert Cabrera. Shortstop Rich Aurilia, scheduled to bat eighth in the original lineup, moved up to sixth.
Don’t slip up: The question concerned Gil Meche, but Melvin’s answer covered the entire team.
Asked whether the inconsistent Meche was pitching for a place on the roster Tuesday, Melvin said everyone’s status is at stake during a season like this.
“We evaluate where we are as a team every game because of the position we put ourselves in,” Melvin said. “It’s a day-to-day proposition. We play a game and figure out where we are, and figure out how to get back to where we thought we would be with this team once the season started.”
If it means replacing someone with a player from the minors, that’s what the club will do, Melvin said.
“There’s always a guy in Triple A who can potentially take your spot,” he said. “That’s the way it is in baseball. That’s one of the driving forces, that you always know there are people in a position to take your job. That’s not new.”
Glove story: Spiezio, who is playing third base regularly for the first time since he was a minor leaguer, led the Mariners with five errors going into Tuesday’s game but has played impressively.
His best game may have been Monday, when he made two spectacular diving plays in the second inning and charged a chopper in the eighth and threw out the Jays’ Frank Menechino.
“There’s still a lot of things I’ve got to work on,” Spiezio said. “It will take a little while, but I feel good over there for the most part. It’s like anything, I’ll feel real good over there for a week, then something will come up. But the streaks of comfort are getting longer.”
Spiezio said slow rollers between home and third remain his biggest challenge.
“There are so many variables involved with it,” he said. “There’s the speed of the runner, the speed of the ball, knowing whether to go with the bare hand or go with the glove.”
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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