Opponent: Oakland A’s
When: 1:35 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: none
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Probable starters: Seattle left-hander Jamie Moyer (1-1, 5.30 earned run average) vs. left-hander Mark Mulder (1-1, 2.14).
If Rafael Soriano’s right arm is getting stronger, his velocity isn’t showing it.
The Mariners’ right-handed relief pitcher managed just 91 mph on the radar gun Tuesday night while pitching in a California League game for the Mariners’ Class A Inland Empire team against Lancaster.
Mariners manager Bob Melvin wasn’t discouraged by the report, citing bad weather at Lancaster.
“He was between 87 and 91 (mph),” Melvin said. “The weather was cold and windy. Sometimes that affects your velocity.”
Soriano’s fastball routinely hit 95 and peaked at 97 last year, and he reported to spring training in good shape after pitching winter ball. He suffered a strained oblique muscle the first week of spring training and showed the effects in the first week of the regular season, going 0-2 and rarely throwing his fastball better than 92 mph.
The Mariners sent him to the minor leagues April 14 to build his arm strength, although he hasn’t shown any increase in his velocity in two starts for Inland Empire. He is expected to pitch again Sunday for Class AA San Antonio.
Lineup shuffle: Randy Winn, who had started all 14 games for the Mariners, got some time off Wednesday as Melvin started Quinton McCracken in center field.
Third baseman Scott Spiezio batted second and John Olerud, who entered the game batting .196, dropped to seventh.
Melvin has played a different starting lineup in all but one game this season, a departure last year when he rarely varied his mix. The team’s personnel this year, he said, allows him to move players up and down in the order more easily.
“I like to mix it up depending on who the pitcher is and how we want to attack him,” Melvin said. “We definitely have some pieces we can move around this year depending on how we want to match up.”
Snelling down again: Outfielder Chris Snelling still can’t get a break from injury.
After missing all of spring training because of surgery on the hamate bone in his right hand, he had another operation Tuesday to repair cartilage in the right wrist.
The Mariners said the cartilage problem was an existing injury and he will miss about three months.
Snelling has endured a long list of injuries, including a torn knee ligament eight games after he was called up by the Mariners in 2002. He spent all of 2002 and part of 2003 recovering from the knee injury and had hoped for a healthy spring training this year.
However, he felt pain in his hand while swinging a bat in February and had surgery on the hamate bone. That was to have kept him out six weeks.
Now he is out until mid-July.
Crosby out: Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby missed Wednesday’s game after injuring his left knee in a collision Tuesday with left fielder Bobby Kielty, although his prognosis was encouraging. Crosby returned to Oakland for a magnetic resonance imaging exam that revealed only a bruised knee.
Still, his absence left the A’s thin at second base Wednesday. Mark Ellis is out for the season with a shoulder injury, Frank Menechino is on the disabled list because of a strained calf and Mark McLemore won’t return until next week at the earliest after surgery March 20 to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.
The A’s moved second baseman Marco Scutaro to shortstop and started Esteban German at second. Scutaro had started all 14 games at second.
Hockey talk: Players and coaches from the Kelowna Rockets were on the field and watched the Mariners take batting practice Wednesday afternoon, and were joined by M’s pitcher Jamie Moyer for conversation and a photo.
The Rockets will play the Everett Silvertips tonight at the Everett Events Center in Game 4 of the WHL Western Conference finals. Mariners co-owner Chris Larson has an ownership stake in the Rockets.
Kirby Arnold
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