Saturday watchpoints: Roster roulette reaches record levels

Right-hander Rob Whalen will push the Mariners into record territory when he starts Saturday against Boston at Fenway Park.

Whalen will be the 43rd different player used this season by the Mariners. Also their 27th pitcher and their 12th starting pitcher.

All are most in the majors for any club through 50 games since the millennium. (For that stat, credit research by master sabermetrician David W. Smith of www.retrosheet.com.)

The Mariners recalled Whalen on Wednesday from Triple-A Tacoma, where he was 0-2 with a 4.09 ERA in four starts after being activated April 27 from the disabled list.

Here are the rest of the stats since 2000 (courtesy of Smith):

***Most players used: 2017 Mariners 43; 2015 Tampa Bay Rays 42; and 2015 Texas Rangers 41.

***Most pitchers used: 2017 Mariners 27; 2016 Cincinnati Reds and 2013 Toronto Blue Jays 24; and 2015 Tampa Bays Rays, 2015 Texas Rangers and 2009 Florida Marlins 23.

***Most starting pitchers: 2017 Mariners 12; 2007 New York Yankees and 2002 St. Louis Cardinals 11; 16 teams used 10.

Other watchpoints:

***Boston is starting left-hander Brian Johnson (1-0 with a 7.20 ERA) when the three-game weekend series continues at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time Saturday at Fenway Park. He was recalled Saturday from Triple-A Pawtucket and is making his first career start at Fenway Park.

***Johnson made one previous start this season and got the victory on April 18 at Toronto despite allowing four runs and seven hits in five innings. He was 2-0 with a 2.82 ERA in five starts at Pawtucket.

***Robinson Cano’s 114 career RBIs against the Red Sox are most by any active player.

***The Mariners and all other clubs are began wore special Memorial Day uniforms and caps Saturday and will continue to do so through Monday’s games. The right side of the caps contain five stars, which represent the five branches of the military. The five-star design is also stitched to the right sleeve of all uniforms.

***The Red Sox lead the majors with a .345 on-base percentage as a club.

***Nelson Cruz needs one homer to become the 13th player in franchise history to hit 100 as a Mariner. Kyle Seager currently ranks eighth on the list at 130. Ken Griffey Jr. is the all-time leader at 417.

***Second baseman Dustin Pedroia returned to the Boston lineup after missing Friday’s game. He has an errorless streak of 79 games. In that span, all other major-league second basemen have made a combined 226 errors.

***The Mariners are 8-19 in road games.

***Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel has retired 55 of the his last 59 batters faced.

TIME CAPSULE

It was two years ago Saturday — May 27, 2015 — that Nelson Cruz broke a scoreless tie with two outs in the ninth inning at Tampa Bay by hitting a three-run homer into the fish tank beyond the center-field wall at Tropicana Field.

Cruz’s blast backed a complete-game shutout by Felix Hernandez and completed a three-game sweep over the Rays. Hernandez improved to 8-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.91.

Bob Dutton: @TNT_Mariners

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Saturday watchpoints: Roster roulette reaches record levels."