Well. That Boston series was a stone cold bummer. The Mariners will try to snatch some dignity back by not getting nearly swept again by the Royals, which will likely involve not making the foolish and arrogant choice to throw pitches anywhere in the zone to Salvador Perez, if at all avoidable.
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That will be the job of Chris Flexen, as he takes the ball to start the series. The Royals are starting RHP Jon Heasley fresh from Double-A, a fastball-curveball pitcher whose raw stuff is somewhat underwhelming but who generated a lot of strikeouts with that combo this year in Double-A—many of them against the Mariners’ own Double-A team, freshly eliminated from the Texas League playoffs.