The Seattle Mariners will find themselves peaking at the scoreboard and hoping the New York Yankees can take care of the Oakland Athletics. They hope that scenario takes place while hoping they can beat the worst team in baseball. The Mariners head into the opener of a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles facing a 5 1/2-game deficit for the second wild-card spot with 25 games remaining. They settled for a split in Oakland after taking an 8-2 loss and are returning after going 4-5 on a nine-game trip. Article continues below ...“We have an uphill climb ahead of us www.officialhurricanes.com ,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We have to go home and take care of business there and rattle off a good string of wins. We have to win five, six in a row and see what happens from there. There’s still plenty of baseball to play, but it has to happen real quick for us. We need to have a real good homestand.” After facing the Orioles, the Mariners face the New York Yankees for three games and then go back on the road for nine games. Seattle won four games in Baltimore on June 25-28 to go to 51-31, but since then the Mariners are an inconsistent 25-30 while the A’s have soared through the standings to get the second wild card. Baltimore, meanwhile, heads to Seattle at 40-97 after getting swept in a three-game series in Kansas City in a matchup of the two worst teams in the majors. The Orioles were outscored 23-6 and committed three errors in Sunday’s 9-1 loss. Before this weekend, Baltimore swept three games from Toronto, including the major league debut of Josh Rogers, who makes his second start Monday. “I can’t even lie. I woke up sick,” the left-hander told MLB.com last Tuesday of his pregame jitters before facing Toronto. “I was pretty nervous all day and then I got to go to lunch with my family and my grandparents and my dad Carolina Hurricanes T-Shirts Authentic , mom, sister, girlfriend — so it was really good to just kind of get away from it a little bit, stop thinking about it.“It was good to do that and just get away from the game for a minute. Really, when I started playing catch in the outfield, it was like everything kind of settled in. It didn’t feel like another night, but I was just trying to throw strikes.” Rogers, the first left-hander to start for the Orioles this season, went five innings in a 12-5 win and allowed three runs and seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts. He said he had about 30 friends and family members in attendance for his debut. “I didn’t want to take him out of the game, especially after seeing his mom and dad here,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of trying to get Rogers through five innings for the victory. “I planned coming into the game to take him to five Carolina Hurricanes Hoodies Authentic , maybe the sixth tops. But we weren’t really good in the bullpen for length. I don’t know if relief is the word. I’m just proud how much that meant to him.” Rogers will get his first road start Monday night in Seattle against right-hander Erasmo Ramirez (1-3, 6.28).Rogers, 24, was acquired by the Orioles from the New York Yankees as part of the deal for reliever Zach Britton. Ramirez will be making his 18th career appearance against the Orioles, including seven starts. He’s 2-4 with a 2.98 ERA against them. Ramirez last started Wednesday in San Diego when he was rocked for seven runs and nine hits in three innings. Hockey fans have often criticized NBC’s coverage for not showing more of the NHL’s young stars and the up-and-coming teams.That changes when the season opens Wednesday as the network goes with a new approach.NBCSN’s “Wednesday Night Rivalries” has been replaced by “Wednesday Night Hockey.” As part of the repackaging, the network’s studio crew will occasionally report on site, starting on Wednesday from Washington when the Capitals begin defense of their title against Boston.“We’re now showcasing the brightest team and stars. We think it’s a great way to add new teams and stars to a big night,” NBC Sports Executive Producer Sam Flood said. “The intent on Wednesday nights has always been to make it the destination night for hockey. Now we can really take advantage of that.”Much like the NBA does on Thursdays, the NHL has tried to make Wednesday its night for must-see TV.Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer, said “Wednesday Night Rivalries” proved how special that night can be for the league.“We’re going to make Wednesday night feel special and we want our players to once we get into this to say Carolina Hurricanes Hats Authentic , ‘Wow, we’re playing on Wednesday night.’ We know that in football, for example, playing on ‘Monday Night Football’ is a big deal,” Mayer said. “Well, why can’t playing on Wednesday night hockey be a big deal? And that’s what we’re striving for.”The biggest beneficiaries of the change are the Western Conference teams. NBCSN will air 18 doubleheaders on Wednesday nights — up from five last season — and 67 of the scheduled 110 games on NBC and NBCSN will have a team from the conference.Winnipeg, which has not made a regular-season national appearance since 2014, will make five this season, including an Oct. 24 game against Toronto that will see NBCSN’s studio show going on the road.NBC’s Mike Emrick said the Jets are one of many teams that deserve the increased exposure.“That matchup could be a Stanley Cup final. There is going to be plenty of excitement with that game early in the season,” he said.Other teams receiving increased exposure are Tampa Bay and Nashville. Both teams will make 12 appearances, which is almost double what they had last season. Defending Western Conference champion Vegas (9) Custom Carolina Hurricanes Jerseys , Anaheim (8) and Edmonton (7) also have nearly twice as many appearances as last season.Colorado, which was on only once last year, will be on six times.“We feel it’s time and vital that, given the parity of the league throughout, that we start to develop other teams,” Mayer said. “If suddenly the Nashvilles and the Tampas and some teams that haven’t had the grand exposure get exposure, what’s to say that they’re not going to be the higher-rated teams? … We really believe that our audience is into great hockey played by the best teams and the way we present the games and the stars will lead to great ratings.”The traditional teams will still get plenty of exposure. Chicago will have the most appearances with 19 despite not making the playoffs last season. One of those games will be the Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium on Jan. 1 against Boston. Washington will make the first of its 18 appearances followed by Philadelphia (17) and Pittsburgh (15).The only teams not scheduled to appear on NBCSN are Ottawa and Vancouver.“Certainly from a kind of talent standpoint, a competitive standpoint, showing more clubs is better,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. “The fact that NBC is prepared to engage on that basis where we don’t necessarily have to have major U.S. markets for their national games says a lot about how far we’ve come as a sport.”The All-Star Game, which will be held in San Jose on Jan. 26 www.officialblackhawksproshop.com , will be broadcast in prime time on NBC, which is the first time that has happened on a major broadcast network since 1997.Flood thinks the three-on-three format could draw even more fans. It also will be the week before the Super Bowl, which should allow the league to reap increased exposure.The league is also focusing on improving its digital offerings through its deal with BAMTech, which began as a spinoff of Major League Baseball Advanced Media before becoming its own entity. The Walt Disney Co. took a controlling stake in BAMTech in 2017.The NHL.TV offering will include more pregame and postgame coverage, as well as being able to view programming during intermission, after deals were made with team broadcasting partners.ESPN hasn’t aired the NHL since 2004 on any of its channels but will have nine games a week on its ESPN streaming service starting this season. ESPN , which launched in April and just crossed over a million subscribers, had at least one baseball game a day. ESPN will also air a nightly hockey show.“We know there is a big opportunity to grow the subscriber base with both products,” said Disney Streaming President Michael Paull. “One thing we learned is that fans want more video. They want more coverage before and after the games.”