Pregame
From the Mariners' Series Preview:
Miguel Batista: It's been one of the worst statistical seasons of this 37-year old's career. The right-hander is usually good for 190 innings, and as things go wasn't a bad number three or four guy for the last seven years. This year it seems he's lost his command, walking more guys (59) than he's struck out (57). Yet the Mariners are seemingly in a position where they can't not keep giving him starts. They've tried him in the bullpen, where he still gets rocked, but with Erik Bedard on the disabled list and even a guy like R.A. Dickey getting run out to pitch every five days, Seattle doesn't seem to have many good options (Carlos Silva, anyone?). But back to Batista, his scouting report is as follows: he'll walk you and he'll give up a gopher ball or two if you just wait for your pitch. Don't force anything, because he'll destroy himself. Now that I've sufficiently cursed the Twins, I'll move on.
On the mound for the away team is southpaw Glen Perkins, who's coming off of back-to-back sup-par performances. In New York on July 23rd he was tagged for five runs on eight hits through six, while on the 29th he allowed four runs on seven hits through six. While Perkins is a pitcher who's going to average more than a hit per inning, he needs to avoid letting offenses string the hits together; the old phrase "a bloob and a blast will kill ya" applies here. As a fly-ball pitcher and as someone who will pitch higher in the zone, it will be vital for Perk to hit his spots. Still, in spite of being one of the hardest hit starters in Minnesota's rotation, he's still been effective on the season, and hopefully he can get back on track tonight against a struggling Mariners team and a lineup that doesn't offer much in the way of threats. One good thing about tonight is that as a southpaw, Perkins will be able to keep a close eye on Ichiro should he reach first base.
Over at Lookout Landing, SBNation's great Mariners blog, Matthew said this about Perk in his preview:
Glen Perkins is one of Minnesota's many young pitchers. He made some appearances in relief the past two years but stepped into the rotation full time this season and has performed at a back end level. He doesn't miss many bats or get many strikeouts, but like all Minnesota pitchers, he throws strikes. If he kept the ball on the ground a bit more he'd approach league average, but as it stands, his tRA sits at 5.09.
For the Mariners, I'd expect this lineup versus Glen Perkins: Ichiro (RF), Bloomquist (SS), Ibanez (LF), Beltre (3B), Lopez (2B), Vidro (DH), Cairo (1B), Johjima (C), Reed (CF)
For the Twins against a RHP I'll go with: Span (RF), Punto (2B), Mauer (C), Morneau (1B), Kubel (DH), Young (LF), Buscher (3B), Harris (SS), Gomez (CF)