Just as the Mariners starting rotation is beginning to take shape, the club is playing around with it.
Seattle pitchers have made it into the seventh inning for three consecutive games for the first time since last year. But that's not stopping manager John McLaren from tampering with the rotation. Left-hander Jarrod Washburn, who was supposed to throw Saturday, will be skipped and won't pitch in the Detroit series. Instead he'll next start Tuesday against his former team, the Angels.
Washburn has lost seven consecutive decisions to Detroit, including giving up nine runs in 2 1/3 innings last week in Comerica Park. Right-handers Carlos Silva, Felix Hernandez and Miguel Batista will instead face the Tigers, who are an American League-worst 15-28 against righties.
That leaves two lefties, Wednesday's winner Erik Bedard, and Washburn to pitch the first two games against the Angels.
The Mariners aren't big fans of having left-handers start back-to-back in the rotation, and when Seattle fell into that situation early in the season, it wasted no time splitting up Bedard and Washburn.
This time, however, Seattle is willing to take the chance even though Washburn has never been comfortable pitching the day after another lefty -- he feels batters can get too comfortable against lefties if they see one two days in succession -- and his low point last year was when he followed another lefty, Horacio Ramirez, in the rotation.
Manager John McLaren shares that sentiment, but he seemed to believe the chance to skip Washburn against the Tigers is worth the risk.
"We're trying to match up the best we can," the manager said. "We look at the numbers and we see who struggles against certain teams."
