Rangers at Mariners Pre-Game Notes: Kyle Cody, John King to Pitch on Friday Night

The Texas Rangers travel to Seattle to begin an unconventional four-game weekend series on Friday night.

The Texas Rangers travel to Seattle to begin an unconventional four-game weekend series on Friday night.

Texas Rangers (13-23) @ Seattle Mariners (15-22)

Friday, September 4, 2020
8:10 p.m. CT
T-Mobile Park | Seattle, WA
Roof Open

Probables
TEX: RHP Kyle Cody (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
vs
SEA: LHP Yusei Kikuchi (1-2, 6.12 ERA)

Broadcast

Texas Rangers
TV: FOX Sports Southwest
Radio: 105.3 The Fan, KFLC

Seattle Mariners
TV: Root Sports Northwest
Radio: 710

Texas Rangers Starting Lineup

1. CF Leody Taveras
2. 3B Isiah Kiner-Falefa
3. 2B Nick Solak
4. RF Joey Gallo
5. C Jose Trevino
6. DH Shin-Soo Choo
7. SS Elvis Andrus
8. 1B Ronald Guzmán
9. LF Eli White

Seattle Mariners Starting Lineup

1. SS J.P. Crawford
2. 2B Dylan Moore
3. CF Kyle Lewis
4. 3B Kyle Seager
5. DH Ty France
6. LF José Marmolejos
7. 1B Evan White
8. C Luis Torrens
9. RF Sam Haggerty

Injury Report

10-Day IL

• Joe Palumbo (ulcerative colitis flare-up): eligible August 14
• Willie Calhoun (strained left hamstring): eligible August 30
• Jesse Chavez (left big toe sprain): eligible September 2
• Danny Santana (right elbow sprain): eligible September 6
• Rougned Odor (right eye infection): eligible September 7

45-Day IL

• Brock Burke (left shoulder surgery): eligible May 27
• Corey Kluber (torn right teres major muscle (shoulder)): eligible September 11
• José Leclerc (torn right teres major muscle (shoulder)): eligible September 13
• Edinson Vólquez (right oblique strain): eligible September 27

Kyle Cody and John King Get the Nod for Friday's Series Opener

The departure of Mike Minor via trade opens up opportunity for some younger pitchers to take advantage of some expanded roles. On Friday night, Kyle Cody will pitch the first three innings, piggybacked by John King. 

With the number of younger players that are getting some much needed playing time, I asked Chris Woodward about the challenges of handling them—especially the ones who have not played Double A or Triple A ball. 

“It's funny, I talked to John King today about that. I think the biggest thing for me is that they keep improving. I told him, ‘Listen, you could go out today and throw three scoreless or you may give up five. Obviously we'd love for you to go out and throw three scoreless, but the continual improvement is what's necessary and to understand how your stuff plays and how to throw it. At no point in the history of the game have you, as a pitcher especially, you should understand exactly what your stuff does and how it works. There's proof that you can use that against Major League hitters based on your stuff.’ The only differences is sometimes guys get caught up in the moment. Maybe they psychologically can't handle it. They get rattled, whatever you want to call it, but that's something that we have to work through is to help our younger players, so when things do spiral, we have answers for them. We’ll talk to them after and we can guide them through the process to say, ‘This is what happened. How are we going to keep that from happening next time?’ They're hungry to learn and they're hungry to improve. We have answers for them. The biggest thing that they can do is go out and compete and let it eat and let it rip. Knowing that their stuff is good enough to play at this level. There's been so many young pitchers in baseball the last four or five years because of that, they have had success. There's a little bit more understanding of why and how they can be successful I think than ever before. We don't just throw them out in the ocean and say, ‘Sink or swim man.’ There's a lot of life rafts and ways to help them get back in the boat. I love it. I love putting them out there. I think it's great, especially when guys have no fear of doing it. John King said he was a little nervous, but he's excited. There's more excitement than there is nervousness and that's probably the one of the biggest reasons why we're putting him in that spot.”

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