Pregame news and notes, 6/3

The Seattle Mariners are in a funk. There’s no two ways around it. They appeared to have righted the ship Saturday, but then Tom Wilhelmsen blew a ghastly save and that was that for the series, as the M’s rolled over 10-0 the next day. The M’s still have no solutions for the back end of the rotation besides “leave it be” and Jeremy Bonderman, and they now sit 24-33. They play the White Sox at 7:10 and need to start off the homestand well.

Ten game homestand provides opportunity

The Mariners have by far the most walk-off losses in baseball this year and since the start of 2010. Fortunately, no baseball team, not even the lowly M’s, can lose a walk-off at home. At nine games under .500, the Mariners probably need to win seven of ten to start a push back toward even. Can they do so? They would probably need to win the White Sox series, split with the Yankees and sweep the Astros. Sounds doable, until you consider that nothing is a guarantee with this inconsistent Seattle squad.

Smoak to DL, Catricala DFA’d

Bonderman’s start Sunday was atrocious. He gave up seven runs in 4.2 innings and the Mariners had no confidence to help him. To make matters worse, the Mariners will be without Justin Smoak for at least another week due to his injury and Bonderman’s roster presence. Making matters even worse than that is the Mariners gave up on Vinnie Catricala, their once promising third base prospect. Remember, they gave up on another third base prospect, Francisco Martinez, about a week ago. The future is looking bleaker by the day.

Here’s the lineup with Joe Saunders against John Danks:

1. Chavez RF
2. Bay LF
3. Seager 3B
4. Morales 1B
5. Ibanez DH
6. Franklin 2B
7. Saunders CF
8. Sucre C
9. Ryan SS