Mariners' Hisashi Iwakuma: Another encouraging rehab outing

Iwakuma (shoulder) tossed two scoreless innings in short-season Everett's loss to Vancouver on Friday, walking one and striking out two.

Iwakuma's hopes of pitching some big-league innings in 2018 remain alive following a second consecutive encouraging outing, one in which he worked up to a modest 20 pitches. Naturally, the level of competition is far from what he would face at the major-league level, but the fact his surgically repaired shoulder seems to be holding up well thus far is the most important takeaway from his first pair of minor-league outings. Iwakuma has now pitched three innings overall with Everett, and he could potentially be bumped up to a higher level in the organization for his next rehab appearance.