A little sad news in the Seattle Mariners family will give rookie outfielder Carlos Peguero his first chance to play in the majors.

First baseman Justin Smoak, the team’s most consisent hitter this season, was placed on bereavement leave to deal with family matters, and the team recalled Peguero from Tacoma, where he was batting .311 in 12 games, with two home runs, three doules and seven RBI.

Will Peguero start in an already crowded outfield? We’ll find out, but it seems unlikely the team brought a hot hitter to the big leagues without plans to utilize him. The man who might lose at-bats is DH Jack Cust, who may sit to allow Milton Bradley to DH and open left field to Peguero.

That would let Justin Saunders and Ryan Langerhans handle center field.

Smoak could be gone four or five days.

Meanwhile, here’s tonight’s lineup vs. Detroit LHP Phil Coke:

Ichiro RF
Chone Figgins 3B
Milton Bradley LF
Jack Cust DH
Miguel Olivo C
Brendan Ryan SS
Jack Wilson 2B
Chris Gimenez 1B
Michael Saunders  CF
Doug Fister P