MLB Game Preview - Seattle at LA Angels

Sun Apr 9, 2017 3:37 PM EDT

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- When the Los Angeles Angels' Matt Shoemaker last pitched against the Seattle Mariners, a line drive nearly cost the right-hander his career and his life.

Shoemaker suffered a fractured skull and cranial bleeding when a ball travelling 105 mph off Kyle Seager's bat hit the right side of his head in the second inning Sept. 4. The right-hander underwent brain surgery that evening to stop the bleeding and returned to California two days later, but concerns persisted about how the injury would affect is career.

The 30-year-old answered some of those concerns in spring training, when he amassed 21 strikeouts and walked just five in 17 innings, and will make his second start of the season Sunday against the Mariners.

In his first start Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics, Shoemaker allowed two runs -- both on home runs -- four hits and three walks while striking out four and throwing 99 pitches in five innings.

" 'Shoe' struggled, a lot of pitches to get through five innings," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the Orange County Register. "He had a lot of traffic on the bases. He got some big outs when he needed it. The walks were uncharacteristic and he gave a lot of counts away. He'll be better next time."

As he did in his first start, Shoemaker will take the mound wearing a carbon-fiber cap insert to protect his head.

"It's comfortable to the point that I don't know it's there," Shoemaker told ESPN.com before the season.

Shoemaker feel so comfortable with the insert that he can joke about the injury and his wife's reaction to the new piece of headgear.

"She really doesn't mind," Shoemaker told the Register. "She said 'You've got a titanium plate in there so you're probably good if it hits the same spot.' "

Shoemaker faces a team struggling badly at the plate. The Mariners enter the game with the major leagues' worst team batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.

Robinson Cano and Mitch Haniger are batting just .208. Six other regulars are batting less than .200, with Nelson Cruz hitting .091.

"It's a mistake here, a mistake there, a bad at-bat at the wrong time," Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "We're just not in a good spot right now. But our guys are grinding it out."

Seager believes they are also maintain their composure.

"The one thing that we were all pretty confident in was that we were going to score runs and we were going to have a dynamic offense," Seager told the Seattle Times. "Right now, we haven't done that. But there's no real panic about us offensively inside the locker room.

"The track record will play. When we look back at the end of the season, the numbers are going to be there and things will be right where they are supposed to be."

Right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma will start for Seattle. Iwakuma permitted just three hits in his first five-plus innings Tuesday night against the Houston Astros, but two of those hits were solo homers. The veteran of 11 seasons in Japan's Pacific League took the loss after conceding two runs, four hits and three walks in his six innings while recording two strikeouts.

"The velocity is a tick down," Mariners manager Scott Servais told MLB.com. "But he really kept a pretty good hitting team off-balance. Outside the two opposite-field homers, he was really, really good."