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On the day before Tax Day / Darvish Day in Canada, we will be watching the rubber match for this series between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Before yesterday's loss, the Mariners were cruising on a 4-game winning streak, and the man who was on the mound to start it was Jason Vargas. Jason is a southpaw who has found a home in Seattle after bouncing around with the Marlins and the Mets, completing the tour of all the "M" teams in the Majors. Useless Trivia Point: Vargas is actually the only player in MLB history to exclusively play with all three "M" franchises. Vargas last faced the Blue Jays on August 16, 2011. He went 4 innings, giving up 8 runs (all earned) on 7 hits. Every starter had a hit off of him, and Aaron Hill had a homer. I'm sure he looks forward to a rematch today.
For the Blue Jays, Henderson Alvarez will be there looking for his 2nd MLB win. Alvarez, as we all know, has been pitching very well, but for some reason (some say his uniform number) he doesn't get much offensive support. After the brilliant show the batters performed yesterday, let's see if they can't repeat that today. Alvarez is also looking to go at least five innings today to extend the Jays' current streak of 23 games with starters having worked at least 5 innings, going back to September 27 of last year. Alvarez finished with exactly 5 innings pitched against Seattle on his second MLB start. He left with a 5-4 lead after giving up 4 runs (all earned) on 6 hits, striking out 3 and walking 6. Unfortunately, Trever Miller and Jon Rauch gave up back-to-back homers to Mike Carp and Casper Wells. In sort of poetic justice, Miller was released and picked up by the Red Sox several days later during their September Collapse, and Rauch is now playing for the Mets.
Today's lineup, brought to you by manager John Farrell, will again future the full time clean up hitter Edwin Encarnacion batting 5th, with Adam Lind batting 4th despite facing Vargas. And just FYI, Jeff Matthis has had 5 strikeouts and a double in 13 plate appearances against Mathis.
Full lineups after the jump!
- Yunel Escobar SS
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Jose Bautista RF
- Adam Lind 1B
- Edwin Encarnacion DH
- Eric Thames LF
- Brett Lawrie 3B
- Colby Rasmus CF
- Jeff Mathis C
The Mariners have this lineup:
- Chone Figgins LF
- Dustin Ackley 2B
- Ichiro Suzuki RF
- Alex Liddi 1B
- Kyle Seager 3B
- Michael Saunders CF
- Miguel Olivo C
- John Jaso DH
- Muneori Kawasaki SS
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