Five fun facts for Mariners' Opening Day

Club has fared well in recent Opening Days, with help from a King

April 2nd, 2017

HOUSTON -- With Seattle set to begin its season Monday night against the Astros, here are five interesting facts related to Mariners' Opening Day.
1. The churn continues
Only seven of the 25 players who'll be in uniform Monday were on the Opening Day roster last year when general manager Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais started their new tenures.
The select seven: , , , , , and Nick Vincent.
Seven others joined the team midway through last season: Mike Zunino, , , , , and . The other 11 players were added in the offseason.

2. Opening Day newbies
While the Mariners have a solid veteran core, eight players made their first Opening Day roster, including starting right fielder Mitch Haniger. The other first-timers are , , , Miranda, Heredia, Diaz and Altavilla.
3. The King's reign continues
When Hernandez takes the mound, he'll be making his ninth consecutive Opening Day start, the longest active streak in the Majors. Next closest is , who will pitch his seventh straight opener for the Dodgers.

No one else has more than four in a row, and both of those are having their streaks snapped, as will pitch the second game of the season for the Cardinals this year and is opening the year on the disabled list with a strained elbow in Boston.
King Felix has not only pitched a lot of openers, he has been extremely good. In nine Opening Day starts -- he also started Opening Day in 2007 before beginning his current streak in '09 -- Hernandez is 6-1 with a 1.49 ERA. The lone loss came last year at Texas despite allowing just one hit.
4. Don't feel left out
When starts Monday's game, he'll become the eighth different Opening Day left fielder in the past 10 years for Seattle.
The revolving door has seen Raul Ibanez (2008), ('09), Milton Bradley ('10-11), Mike Carp ('12), ('13), ('14-15) and ('16) precede Dyson.

5. They open well
Thanks in large part to Hernandez's mound mastery, the Mariners have the fourth-best Opening Day record of any franchise in the Majors since their inception in 1977. Seattle is 24-16 in season openers, trailing only the Mets (29-11), Orioles (26-14) and White Sox (25-15) in that span.
Seattle had won nine straight until last year's 3-2 loss to Texas, which left the Mariners one shy of the MLB record of 10 straight by the Boston Beaneaters from 1887-96. Of course, Hernandez started eight of those previous nine openers, with starting the only other game in 2008 in a 5-2 win over the Rangers.
Seattle has not allowed more than three runs in any of its past 10 openers. This will be the first time they've opened against the Astros, but the eighth time in the past nine years they've debuted on the road.