This was supposed to be the weekend Ben Williamson got a chance to show the Seattle Mariners they made a mistake when they traded him last offseason.
Instead, it appears the Tampa Bay Rays’ infielder could be headed to the injured list.
Williamson exited Tampa Bay’s 4-0 victory Wednesday at Colorado in the ninth inning with a right hamstring injury, sustained while running down the first-base line after hitting a chopper to second base. Williamson limped to the dugout and had to be helped down the dugout stairs.
Team officials said Williamson would undergo an MRI before the Rays’ opener of a three-game series against the host Mariners on Friday night.
“Grabbed his hammy pretty good,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ll get him checked out, for sure, and go from there.”
Williamson, acquired in a three-team deal with St. Louis and Seattle in which the Mariners acquired veteran infielder Brendan Donovan, has played second base, shortstop and third for the Rays this season. He has batted .247 with three homers and 26 RBIs in 83 games.
The American League East-leading Rays have won 12 of their past 16 games. Their shutout at Coors Field on Wednesday was their fifth in the past 11 games and their 11th of the season.
Nick Martinez got the victory to celebrate his 36th birthday.
“A shutout and a sweep on a birthday is about as good as it gets,” said Martinez, who went 5 2/3 innings.
Junior Caminero hit a 449-foot homer leading off the third inning for Tampa Bay. It was his 33rd homer of the season and his third in as many days in the Mile High City.
“I like (it) a lot,” Caminero said of his first trip to Denver. “I want to stay three more days here.”
While the Rays spent an off day Thursday in Seattle, the defending AL West champion Mariners might have scraped bottom with an 11-0 loss to visiting Detroit in a game in which they used outfielder Victor Robles to mop up on the mound.
Starter Bryce Miller, who had been 3-0 with an 0.00 ERA in four previous starts against the Tigers, allowed three first-inning runs.
“He didn’t come out very sharp from the get-go and made us play catch-up baseball,” said Mariners acting manager Manny Acta, who took over as Dan Wilson served a one-game suspension after the benches cleared the previous night.
“But we couldn’t do anything offensively, anyways.”
The Mariners were blanked for the second time in three games and for the league-high 11th time this season.
Friday’s series opener will feature a matchup of right-handers in the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen (10-5, 2.91 ERA) against the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (8-6, 3.46).
Rasmussen, an All-Star, has won his past three starts, including 1-0 Saturday against the visiting Chicago White Sox in which he gave up four hits over six innings and struck out 10. The native of nearby Puyallup, Wash., who attended Oregon State, is 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) against Seattle.
Gilbert didn’t get a decision in a 4-3 victory against visiting Minnesota on Saturday after allowing three runs on five hits over seven innings, with six strikeouts. He’s 1-2 with a 3.71 ERA in six career starts vs. the Rays.
–Field Level Media
