Mariners place ace Marco Gonzales on 10-day IL with forearm strain
Mariners starter Marco Gonzales could miss “at least a couple starts” with a left forearm strain, manager Scott Servais said during his daily pregame video call with reporters Thursday.
Seattle’s ace noted soreness and tightness in his throwing arm following Tuesday night’s start against the Astros, Servais said, and underwent an MRI on Wednesday.
“He does have a mild strain in his forearm, so he’s going to miss at least a couple starts,” Servais said. “Fortunately it’s not too serious, but it’s something we want to stay out ahead of.”
Gonzales, who was the club’s Opening Day starter for the third consecutive season earlier this month, and paced the Mariners in starts (11) and innings (69-2/3) during the shortened 2020 season with a 7-2 record and career-best 3.10 ERA, was placed on the 10-day injured list Thursday morning.
Right-handed reliever Domingo Tapia was recalled from Seattle’s taxi squad in a corresponding roster move.
Through five starts in April, Gonzales is 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA, but has tossed quality outings in his past two appearances.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate,” Servais said. “Marco’s our guy. He’s so consistent. We love having him out there. But, we want to be smart here, not let this grow into anything bigger.
“He’s already feeling a little bit better today, but he’s at least going to miss a couple starts and we’ll have to monitor and see where it goes from there.”
Gonzales is the third starter the Mariners have placed on the IL during the first month of the season.
James Paxton, who returned to the club this offseason on a one-year deal, exited his first start of the season in the second inning on April 6, and has since had season-ending Tommy John surgery.
Nick Margevicius, who replaced Paxton in the Mariners’ rotation, was placed on the 10-day IL on Monday with left shoulder inflammation.
“That presents challenges,” Servais said of the series of injuries in his rotation the past four weeks. “There’s no question about it. You lean on starting pitching so heavily in this league and having the consistency of those guys making every turn, it gets challenging when they don’t.”
Four starters from Seattle’s Opening Day rotation remain active in Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Flexen, Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn.
Kikuchi was scheduled to start Thursday’s road trip finale against the Astros. Flexen, Ljay Newsome — who replaced Margevicius in the rotation — and Sheffield are the probable starters for the Mariners when they open their homestand with a three-game series against the Angels on Friday.
HANIGER, LEWIS HELD OUT OF LINEUP
Right fielder Mitch Haniger was a late scratch from Seattle’s lineup Wednesday after playing in each of the club’s 24 games to open the season.
“He didn’t feel 100% today, thought he was dragging a little bit, so I went ahead and made the call to scratch him,” Servais said postgame. “I think we do need to be very disciplined and understand where he’s at as he kind of makes his comeback after being out for so long.”
Haniger was held out of the starting lineup again Thursday, which Servais again said was his call as the Mariners cautiously build Haniger up after missing more than 150 games the past two seasons with injury.
“It’s so important we keep him healthy and on the field and a part of what we’re doing here going forward for the whole year,” Servais said pregame Thursday.
The Mariners also held center fielder Kyle Lewis out of the starting lineup Thursday after he played six of the first seven games of this eight-game road trip to Baltimore and Houston following his return from a stint on the IL with a bone bruise in his knee.
“I think once we get off this road trip and get back into the homestand, now you’ll see him start to play more consistent as far as running out there three, four days in a row and then maybe a DH day,” Servais said. “But, we do want to be very cautious and we knew that going into this road trip that we’re going to be cautious with his build up.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 10:40 AM.
