M’s, A’s Open MLB Season EARLY Wednesday Morning

Like the two clubs did in 2012, the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will play the first two games of the 2019 season that actually count in the Tokyo Dome in Japan starting tomorrow morning (tonight?)

First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. which translates to 2:35 A.M. here on the west coast of the U.S! The same schedule applies for the second game of the truncated series on Thursday.

You may want to avoid waking up at that hour and simply set your DVR instead. If so, the game will be televised live on ESPN and streaming on MLB.tv (subscription service) and on ESPN.com/Watch. Regionally, ROOT Sports will rebroadcast the games at 6:35 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Ichiro Suzuki will surely take center stage as he returns to his homeland for what will likely be his swan song. Mariners skipper Scott Servais has already confirmed that the 45 year-old future Hall of Famer will be in the lineup for Seattle.

Greg Johns at Mariners.com is reporting that the rest of the M's batting order will look like this:
1) Dee Gordon, 2B
2) Mitch Haniger, CF
3) Jay Bruce, 1B
4) Edwin Encarnacion, DH
5) Domingo Santana, LF
6) Omar Narvaez, C
7) Ryon Healy, 3B
8) Tim Beckham, SS
9) Ichiro Suzuki, RF

Toeing the rubber for Seattle will be Gonzaga grad Marco Gonzales who will make his first career Opening Day start - snapping a decade-long streak by Felix Hernandez.