The Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels start their season in Los Angeles and the two teams matchup on ESPN2 as Robinson Cano makes his debut for the M's at 10:00 pm ET and the matchup has Felix Hernandez against Jered Weaver in the late game on the MLB Opening Day schedule and it has two Cy Young Candidates going head to head from Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
The Mariners have high expectations heading into the season after signing Cano to a mega contract and the team will have its home opener in Seattle later in the week at Safeco. Felix Hernandez will be on the mound for the seventh straight season on Opening Day and he faces off against Weaver, who went 11-8 last season while the King went 12-10 with a 3.04 ERA for the M's. The Angels stumbled to start the season last year after dealing with a high amount of injuries and now they come in with playoffs on their minds after signing Mike Trout to a contract of his own at over $140 million.
The Athletics and the Rangers have been the top teams in the division over the past few years and the Mariners and Angels are hoping to muscle their way into that this season. The Mariners have a new manager in Lloyd McClendon and a young roster and they feel a strong start could carry through the season and the Angels are hoping for the same thing after stumbling last year in April and they never could dig out of it.
The Mariners come into the game after a losing season and they have some young talent that needs to get developed now with names like Mike Zunino, Brad Miller and Justin SMoak, while Dustin Ackley needs to live up to his promise as a number two pick and the team needs Cano to play well on top of that. Hernandez leads a rotation with Hisashi Iwakuma and James Paxson, while Erasmo Ramirez and Chris Young will hold things down until Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker can return from injuries. The Mariners have a great deal of potential, but they haven't been able to come through on that yet and now bringing Cano in has brought on even higher expectations from fans.
The Mariners are expecting a lot from Cano as well as Logan Morrison and Corey Hart and they need Hernandez to be as good as he can be at the front of the rotation and he comes in at 4-0 in his career starting on Opening Day. The team sent Nick Franklin down to Triple AAA, as Miller won the starting shortstop job this season and he could get traded eventually.
Check here for the Seattle Mariners and LA Angels live coverage from ESPN.
