SEATTLE – Ty France left the opening game of the Mariners’ series on Monday with a right forearm bruise against the Dodgers after being hit by a 98.4 mph two-way fastball from Dustin May in the fifth inning. X-rays were negative, the Mariners announced.
May fought his order at the time, and his twin-flyers – touted as elite fleeing to the judges – continued to bleed in against France.
“You get a bit of a bad feeling,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais after the 4-3 win. “When you’re so close to home plate, you sometimes get the feeling like it’s a broken bone or whatever. But you never know until they have that X-ray. So of course very happy that it is not a broken bone. Tomorrow he will be painful. We’ll have to wait and see how he feels when he comes in in the morning. Hopefully he is ready to go. But we have to wait. “
Seattle’s slugging designated hitter played third base for the first time this season, and when he returned to the field and fielded grounders between innings, his pain was too great to continue. He was featured on the ROOT Sports broadcast with the mouth “I can’t throw” at the Mariners dugout, at which point he was replaced by utility man Sam Haggerty.
France, which has been hit four times this season, has been the Mariners’ most prolific bat outside of Mitch Haniger, and the two make up one of the more formidable 1-2 punches in the American League at the top of the lineup. France came in on Monday with .305 / .400 / .525 with three homers, 10 RBI’s and 172 OPS +. He went deep in Sunday’s 7-2 win over the Astros with three RBI’s in the season.
The Mariners were without their best producer of 2020 – midfielder Kyle Lewis – all season, but the reigning AL Rookie of the Year is expected to be activated for Tuesday’s final episode.
Second baseman Dylan Moore took over for France in third place, and Haggerty took Moore’s second place on Monday. Daily third baseman Kyle Seager made a scheduled start for DH on Monday after starting each of the Mariners’ first 16 games in the hot corner.