The Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners could be short-handed when they play the rubber match of their three-game series Thursday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
Rangers shortstop Corey Seager left a 5-1 victory against Seattle in the seventh inning Wednesday with a left shin contusion after getting hit by a pitch.
Seager got nailed on one hop by an 0-2 pitch from Mariners reliever Austin Voth that bounced in front of the plate.
“It swelled up pretty good on the left shin,” said Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who added that he wouldn’t know Seager’s status for the series finale until Thursday morning. “It swelled up really fast, too.”
It’s been a painful start to the season for Seager, last fall’s World Series MVP, who missed most of spring training after undergoing sports hernia surgery in late January.
The Mariners on Wednesday were without shortstop J.P. Crawford and catcher Cal Raleigh, who had batted first and third in the series opener.
Crawford was a late scratch because of right oblique soreness.
Mariners manager Scott Servais said he was unsure of Crawford’s status going forward.
“We’ll find out more in the morning where that’s at,” Servais said Wednesday night. “He felt something in batting practice. We tried to calm it down, and the strength was good. But we don’t know. He’s going to get an MRI. And we’ll take a look at that. We’ll know more in the morning.”
Raleigh homered for the fourth time in five games and was behind the plate for all nine innings in Seattle’s 4-0 victory Tuesday. He apparently did so despite a severe toothache.
“Never knew a tooth could cause so much pain,” Raleigh muttered.
The player known as the “Big Dumper” had oral surgery Wednesday to have the tooth extracted.
Servais was more optimistic about Raleigh’s status for the last game against the Rangers.
“It was really bothering him,” Servais said. “He played with it, and I’m glad we were able to get it taken care of (Wednesday). … Hopefully he’ll be OK (and) ready to go (Thursday). Like the minute they got it out of there, he started feeling better. He’s pretty swollen. I don’t think he slept too much (Tuesday) night.
“We’ve all had a tooth issue at some point in our lives. I don’t think there’s anything worse. … He was worried about taking one off the face mask and what that was going to do. I give him a ton of credit. He’s probably one of our toughest guys. He’s got the right mentality for that position. He wanted to play (Wednesday), and I said, ‘No, you’re not playing tonight.'”
The Rangers overcame an early deficit on back-to-back homers by Adolis Garcia and Evan Carter to take the lead for good in the fourth inning.
“You’re looking for a shot in the arm,” Bochy said. “Man, those are two big hits.”
Carter later added a run-scoring triple and Texas got 4 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief from Jonathan Hernandez, David Robertson and Grant Anderson.
On Thursday, Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo (1-4, 4.40 ERA), coming off his first victory — on Saturday vs. Colorado — is set to take the mound against Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney (0-2, 6.35).
Castillo is 0-3 with a 4.91 ERA in three previous starts against Texas. Heaney is 4-7 with a 4.18 ERA in 20 appearances (18 starts) vs. Seattle.
–Field Level Media
