Dominic Canzone is back with the Seattle Mariners a month after suffering an AC joint sprain from colliding with the outfield wall on a spectacular catch.

As Mariners’ Luke Raley heats up, he’s becoming a coach favorite

The Mariners activated the 26-year-old outfielder Wednesday morning from the 10-day injured list ahead of 12:40 p.m. series finale against the Kansas City Royals.

To make room for Canzone on the 26-man active roster, Seattle optioned infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty to Triple-A Tacoma.

Canzone just finished a three-game rehab stint with Tacoma, going 4 for 11 with two doubles. Prior to his shoulder/clavicle injury, Canzone played 14 games for Seattle this season, hitting .219 (7 for 24). He was the Mariners team leader with three home runs at the time.

Last month: The interesting story behind big series by Canzone

The Mariners now have both Canzone and Luke Raley as corner outfield options who hit from the left side of the plate. Mitch Haniger, who hits right-handed, has been Seattle’s main right fielder so far this year, but the team could now employ more of a rotation in the corner spots featuring those three players, plus potentially Josh Rojas and Dylan Moore.

Seattle also expects shortstop J.P. Crawford back soon from an oblique injury.

How should Mariners’ lineup look when J.P. Crawford returns?

Canzone was in Wednesday’s lineup hitting seventh and playing left field, with Raley in right field and Haniger serving as the designated hitter. Usual DH Mitch Garver remained on the bench a day after he was a late scratch from the lineup due to back spasms. Second baseman Jorge Polanco was also on the bench again two days after leaving a game with hamstring tightness.

Haggerty, 29, is hitting .067 (1 for 15) in eight games for the Mariners this season. The switch-hitter began the season on the injured list and spent 17 games on a rehab assignment with Tacoma, hitting .344 with two doubles, seven stolen bases and a .792 OPS.

Mariners Radio Network coverage of Wednesday’s game will be carried on Seattle Sports 710 AM, the Seattle Sports app and SeattleSports.com beginning at 11:30 a.m. with the pregame show. Click here for details on how to stream Mariners radio broadcasts from Seattle Sports.

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• Seattle Mariners trade reliever to Cubs for Triple-A 3B with strong numbers

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Alanna Smith scored 16 of her career-high 22 points in the first half, Napheesa Collier scored seven of her 20 points during a decisive fourth-quarter run, and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Storm 83-70 on Tuesday night, spoiling the Seattle debuts of Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike.

Smith carried the Lynx in the first half before Collier took over late, and Minnesota leaned on its defense to frustrate the Storm into a difficult night at the offensive end. Seattle’s Jewell Loyd, last year’s leading scorer in the WNBA at 24.7 points, was held to 10 points on 3-of-19 shooting.

“Seattle is a good team and I feel like we really shut them down in the second half, especially,” Collier said. “Just covering down for each other, really working as a unit and when we’re doing that it’s really fun.”

The opener was supposed to be the unveiling of the new-look Storm after they finished with the second-worst record in the league at 11-29 last season following the departure of Breanna Stewart in free agency and the retirement of Sue Bird.

Bird, who recently became part of Seattle’s ownership group, was in her courtside seat for the opener to see how Diggins-Smith and Ogwumike meshed with their new team. Diggins-Smith returned to the floor after missing the 2023 season while on maternity leave and Ogwumike left behind Southern California for the first time in her WNBA career to sign with Seattle after spending her first 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks.

It was a shaky debut.

“This is a new team,” Seattle coach Noelle Quinn said. “And though, yes, we have excellent players on this roster, it takes time. … What it showed is we have a lot of work to do and that will come as we build through games and the adversity that will come. We’ll be better.”

Ogwumike finished with 20 points and nine rebounds, and Diggins-Smith added 10 points. But Seattle was just 1 of 9 on 3s and committed 17 turnovers.

“They came out more aggressive in that fourth quarter in my opinion. That’s what it felt like at least,” Ogwumike said. “We were doing a lot of figuring out how to change our schemes and I think it’s more about just coming out and doing it aggressively the first time.”

Minnesota led 63-60 going to the fourth quarter, and outscored Seattle 20-10 in the final frame. Collier scored seven straight early in the fourth quarter as Minnesota stretched its lead to 74-62, and Kayla McBride’s 3-pointer from the wing gave the Lynx a 15-point lead with 4:12 remaining.

Smith, who signed a two-year contract after spending last season in Chicago, had reached the 20-point mark only once previously in her career.

“It was a fun first outing,” Smith said.

Seattle didn’t debut its entire new look as rookie Nika Mühl was held out due to pending visa approval. Mühl was the 14th overall pick in the second round of the WNBA draft last month and Seattle created a spot on its roster by trading Jade Melbourne to Washington in exchange for a future draft pick.

The teams will run it back on Friday night in Minnesota for the Lynx’s home opener.

The man King County prosecutors said killed Chef Cory Bellett at the Capitol Hill Link light rail station over the weekend had his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

The 26-year-old opted not to attend the hearing. A defense attorney was there instead.

Prosecutors were seeking probable cause for the charges of murder in the second degree with a deadly weapon enhancement and witness tampering.

According to court documents, Bellett brushed against the suspect as he was descending an escalator. Then on the platform, there was an argument, a fight, and then the stabbing. The King County Medical Examiner reports Bellett was stabbed or cut three times with a box cutter, including once in the neck and once in the torso.

Past coverage: Man arrested following deadly light rail stabbing of beloved Seattle chef

Prosecutors said the $3 million bail is necessary.

“That is based on both a danger to the community that the defendant would pose if he were released, as well as the significant risk of flight should he be released,” Sr. King County Dep. Prosecutor Jason Brookhyser said.

But the defense had a different view. They said that the use of force by the suspect may have been warranted.

“A reasonable inference can be made that getting shoved, unprovoked, next to the light rail tracks could give rise to reasonable belief of imminent harm or death,” defense attorney Brooks DePeyster said.

Bellett worked at Harry’s Fine Foods and was a beloved chef in the Seattle restaurant community.

“We’re all connected, somehow,” Shea Bigger, a local bar server told KIRO 7. “We all have mutual friends. So, it does, you know, you feel it.”

Back at the light rail station, passengers are calling for more security.

“More security presence on the trains, on the platforms, where all the heavy traffic is,” light rail passenger George Alvarez told KIRO Newsradio.

A Sound Transit spokesperson told KIRO Newsradio that attacks like this are extremely rare and the trains are very safe.

However, Bellett’s death is the second time this year that someone has been killed at a Link light rail station.

The name of the suspect hasn’t been released because he hasn’t been charged yet. He’s due back in court Thursday afternoon.

You can read more of James Lynch’s stories here. Follow James on X, formerly known as Twitter, or email him here.

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