Mariners notebook: Smith’s tight groin bumps Ackley up to two hole

A bit of a surprise in the Mariners’ lineup with Dustin Ackley hitting second, Rickie Weeks the designated hitter, Nelson Cruz in right and no Seth Smith against a righty. The one-two of Austin Jackson-Ackley was not something we saw in spring training. There’s a reason why we’re seeing it tonight.

“He’s a little tight. Groin. We are giving him another day,” manager Lloyd McClendon said, referring to Smith.

Was he available last night?

“No,” McClendon said.

Smith is most likely not available tonight either. The injury snuck up on him. He went home feeling fine after hitting two doubles and a triple on Opening Day. The next morning was a different story, however.

“I woke up and it was tight,” Smith said. “I’ve had this before and usually I feel it happen, but I didn’t feel it ’til I woke up, got here, wasn’t moving well. We’ll see how fast I can get back.”

Smith said that this is something he has dealt with in the past. Usually it takes a couple of days of treatment and he is good to go.

“It’s not a big deal but it’s something you have got to take care of, and if you take care of it, it goes away real fast,” he said.

Having been through this before, he knows not to push it and risk further injury. The hope is he can be good to go after the off day Thursday. For now, Ackley hits second, something McClendon was hoping to avoid as he preferred to keep him lower in the order.

“I don’t have a choice,” McClendon said, noting that he was going with balance rather than stacking the lefties at the bottom of the order.

So all the fuss that was made on Twitter (and if you don’t follow me on Twitter, you should at @shannondrayer, but keep the lineup critiques to yourselves) about why McClendon didn’t pinch-hit Smith Tuesday night and why Smith wasn’t in the lineup tonight was for naught.

Lineup

Austin Jackson, CF
Dustin Ackley, LF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nelson Cruz, RF
Kyle Seager, 3B
Rickie Weeks, DH
Logan Morrison, 1B
Mike Zunino, C
Brad Miller, SS

Hisashi Iwakuma, P

Notes

• We got a bit of a Chris Taylor update today. McClendon said Taylor is a bit ahead of schedule in his recovery from a small wrist fracture but not yet ready for games. “He’s still got to get out there, play and compete,” McClendon said. Taylor has been taking batting practice.

• Today is Felix Hernandez’s 29th birthday. He turns 29 with 1,961 career strikeouts, the fourth most among players who made their MLB debut since 1900.

• If you blinked, you missed Tyler Olson’s debut last night. Olson entered the game with a runner on and recorded two outs with a 5-4-3 double play on the first pitch he threw. Olson is the first player since 1988, when pitch-by-pitch data became available, to record two outs on one pitch in a MLB debut.

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