Injury Report

It was reported early Tuesday afternoon that the Mariners put starting pitcher Erasmo Ramirez and relief pitcher Dan Altavilla on the disabled list and brought up pitcher Casey Lawrence and outfielder Guillermo Heredia. Ramirez is expected to miss at least a month with a tear major in his upper back while Altavilla with an inflamed right shoulder. Later it was announced that Wade LeBlanc will start in Ramirez spot in the rotation. LeBlanc did well in his last two outing coming out of the bullpen. I thought that either Ariel Miranda or Rob Thalen would come up to pitch as the fifth starter. This could still happen but not at this time. Lawrence on the other hand will likely take LeBlanc’s spot as the long reliever.

Major league baseball announced that the Mariners and the Oakland A’s will start next season playing in Tokyo, Japan playing two games on March 20 and 21 along with a couple exhibition games against Japanese teams. Like the last time the Mariners and A’s started the season in Japan they will likely play a couple spring training games when they return to the USA.

Heredia will not be in the starting lineup because the Mariners will be facing a right hander so Ben Gamel will be in left field however we will probably seem him later in the game as a pinch hitter and or defensive replacement.

Felix Hernandez will start Tuesday’s game against the A’s. Lawrence could see action depending on the score in the game. Wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t in the game either however there have been times where Servais has put in pitchers who have been activated the same day. The Mariners likely will bring him in sometime during this series against the A’s.