Opponent: San Diego Padres
When: 7:05 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1:35 p.m. Sunday
Where: Safeco Field
TV: Fox Sports Net (cable) all three games
Radio: KIRO (710 AM) all three games
Pitchers: Friday – Seattle right-hander Paul Abbott (4-2, 5.40 earned run average) vs. right-hander Kevin Jarvis (3-5, 4.99).
Saturday – Right-hander Freddy Garcia (6-0, 4.06) vs. right-hander Bobby Jones (2-8, 3.17).
Sunday – Left-hander John Halama (4-4, 5.37) vs. right-hander Carlton Loewer (first appearance).
Live for today: The fans and media have figured everything from the Mariners’ magic number to how many games they will win if they keep up their current pace.
You can’t find anybody with the Mariners who is that curious, especially pitching coach Bryan Price.
“I don’t ever think beyond today,” Price said. “That’s when you’re vulnerable. It’s June and nothing is settled. As soon as you take this for granted, the baseball gods will pinch your head off.”
Another day to sit: Mariners utility player Mark McLemore, who suffered a slight groin pull last Friday, will return to the lineup on Friday, coach John McLaren said. McLemore didn’t start Wednesday and, with the team idle today, will have an extra two days of rest before the Mariners play again.
Everybody’s watching: Tuesday night’s game between the Mariners and Rangers drew the third-highest television rating in Fox Sports Net history with a 21.6 Nielsen rating in the Seattle market.
The network’s previous high was a 25.3 when the Mariners played the Angels on Sept. 23, 1997, during their drive toward the American League West Division championship. The Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat playoff game on May 22, 1997, ranks second with a 22.8 rating.
Tuesday’s Mariners-Rangers game was the highest-rated program of the day in the Seattle area, easily beating the NBC Nightly News (15.8).
Fox Sports Net’s 14.9 average last month, when 17 Mariners games were televised, was the highest May average ever.
No Eaton: For the second straight year, Snohomish native Adam Eaton will miss a chance to pitch near his hometown when the San Diego Padres come to Seattle this weekend. Eaton, a right-hander who is off to a 6-3 start, will pitch tonight at San Francisco.
Finishing the draft: The Mariners added 30 more players to their class of 2001 as baseball’s amateur draft ended on Wednesday. The Mariners, who drafted 14 position players among the 22 they got on Tuesday, added 11 right-handed pitchers, four left-handers, eight outfielders, five catchers and two infielders.
Among the draftees Wednesday was Kyle Aselton, a left-handed pitcher from W.F. West High School in Chehalis, and Travor Heid, a right fielder from Glendale, Ariz., who is the son of Ted Heid, the Mariners’ director of Pacific Rim scouting.
Kirby Arnold
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