SEATTLE - With the regular season down to its final stretch, Dan Wilson is getting an early look at two rookies who have already started to leave a mark.
The Mariners were 5.5 games back in the American League West and four games behind the final wild card spot in the American League an hour before Thursday’s four-game series opener against the Athletics at T-Mobile Park. In that kind of chase, every game carries weight, and Seattle is leaning on fresh faces as the pressure builds.
Left-hander Kade Anderson and outfielder Lazaro Montes, both ranked among MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects, have each made a quick impression in limited major league action.
Anderson, the No. 5 prospect in MLB Pipeline, got his first road start in Seattle’s recent series win over the Boston Red Sox. He allowed two earned runs on three hits in 4.1 innings, striking out three and walking three. Across his first two big league outings, the former NCAA College World Series Most Outstanding Player has a 4.50 ERA and eight strikeouts in 10 innings.
"I don't know if there was much of a transition for him," M's manager Dan Wilson said in a pregame interview Thursday. "It really seems from day one that he's just been pretty comfortable in that role.
I think he's a guy that's really prepared for a long time for these moments. ... I think he's settled in very quickly."
Montes, ranked No. 56 by MLB Pipeline, has had only one game of big league experience so far. He was called up Sept. 1, when rosters expanded from 26 to 28, and made an immediate splash by going 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs in his debut.
He’s back in the lineup Thursday against the Athletics, batting seventh and starting in right field. It will be his first home game at T-Mobile Park and his first time playing the outfield in the majors.
Wilson also pointed to the kind of energy Montes brings to a clubhouse that could use it over the next few weeks. Along with his “light tower power,” the young outfielder has a personality that fits right into the room.
"(The) energy and that joy, it brings so much," Wilson said. "Jhonny Pereda brings that as well, (Victor Robles) brings that. ...
(Julio Rodriguez), when he's Julio, that's what we see from him, too. That's what's amazing.
It's what lifts everybody. Having more of that is important and this is the time of year (where) it does pick you up and keeps the energy alive."
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