Doug Fister had his nerve endings blunted last night with a soft landing in the ninth inning on his first day in the major leagues.
Tuesday, he’ll make his first career big-league start for the Mariners. Manager Don Wakamatsu announced that within the past hour, surprising nobody. The only other options were Chris Jakubauskas, who pitched 4 2/3 innings lasdt night, and Garrett Olson, who has been a wreck as a starter this season.
Wakamatsu went into last night’s game hoping to get Fister an inning of relief in a non-stressful situation, and he found the perfect opportunity in the ninth of a 10-4 blowout loss. Fister gave up a hit and a walk, and lost the handle on a breaking ball so badly that it sailed high and wide to the backstop. But he also did something no other Mariner pitcher did in the game — he didn’t allow a run.
Otherwise, it’s a fairly slow morning on the news front. Wakamatsu said Carlos Silva will throw off the bullpen mound Tuesday. Also, Russell Branyan is batting sixth today for only the fifth time this season, with Franklin Gutierrez moving up to second against Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir.
Here are the lineups:
MARINERS
Ichiro Suzuki, right field
Franklin Gutierrez, center field
Jose Lopez, second base
Mike Sweeney, DH
Adrian Beltre, third base
Russell Branyan, first base
Jack Wilson, shortstop
Kenji Johjima, catcher
Michael Saudners, left field
Left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-1, 4.22 ERA), starting pitcher
RAYS
Jason Bartlett, shortstop
Carl Crawford, left field
Evan Longoria, third base
Ben Zobrist, second base
Pat Burrell, DH
Willy Aybar, first base
Gabe Kapler, right field
Dioner Navarro, catcher
B.J. Upton, center field
Left-hander Scott Kazmir (6-6, 6.10), starting pitcher
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