Notebook | Richie Sexson tinkers with stance

A wider batting stance is something the Mariners hope can extend Richie Sexson's career with the team a little while longer.

Five days on the bench — or rather, hitting in a cage under the stands while games were going on — has enabled Sexson to modify his stance to the point where the team now feels he can employ it in games. There had been ample speculation during the past week that Sexson's days with the team were numbered, but he apparently has several more still to go.

"There's nothing wrong with his swing," Mariners hitting coach Jeff Pentland said. "And there's nothing wrong with anything other than vision being a big part of it. If you can't see it, it's tough to hit it. And to me, when you open up your stance a little bit, it's a little easier to see."

Sexson seemed to be seeing the ball better in April, when he posted an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .765 with five homers and 16 runs batted in. But the OPS fell to just .587 and the RBI total to five in the month of May, despite four more home runs.

"He wasn't open, but he was square," Pentland said of Sexson's batting stance in the opening month. "And as he got into the season, he started closing a little bit more. I watched the tapes every day and I was noticing that. I suggested a couple of things, like opening up a little bit, which other players have done."

And the Mariners are apparently willing to give Sexson more chances. Sexson came up with two on and one out in the second inning on Monday night, but promptly grounded into a double play and drew a round of boos in the process.

In his next at-bat in the fifth inning, he singled down the right-field line.

"It's just a matter of getting used to it and feeling comfortable with it," Pentland said, adding that Sexson did two hours of extra work per day with him. "Any time you make a change like that ... you have to spend time working on it. Especially when a guy's throwing 95 miles per hour."

Mariners manager John McLaren took some heat after Sunday's loss to Detroit for not using Sexson off the bench in the ninth inning to pinch hit for Miguel Cairo. The manager said he wanted to give Sexson a "fresh start" in a situation where the game wasn't on the line.

"He cleared his mind, he worked hard and tonight he's going to get that start," McLaren said. "Some people have told me there's been a lot of talk about why we didn't use him yesterday. I'm kind of glad. Maybe we're rallying around this guy a little bit. He needs that. And we need him."

McLaren added that Cairo, who had hits in all five games in which he replaced Sexson at first base, needed a breather and would be kept more "in the mix" going forward.

3rd start for Reed

Jeremy Reed got his third straight start for the Mariners on Monday, manning right field while Wladimir Balentien took a seat on the bench. The Mariners are interested in seeing how Reed will look given more everyday responsibility.

In two weekend starts, Reed went 3 for 9 and made a diving catch in right field.

"You play the game and you want to be in the lineup," Reed said before Monday's game. "I don't know 100 percent what my role is, but when I walk in the door and see my name on the lineup card, I know that I'm going to give everything I have and play hard that day."

His penchant for hurting himself by chasing down balls hasn't caused his aggressiveness to wane.

"I play the same way regardless," he said. "I've had knickknack injuries. I've had surgery injuries. But I play the same way regardless. When I'm out there, I want to make plays."

Extra cage time

Mariners right fielder Balentien is the latest struggling hitter to see extra time in the batting cages instead of the field. Balentien has only eight hits in his last 43 at-bats, with only one of those, a double, going for extra bases.

He has also struck out 30 times in his first 89 at-bats since a late-April call-up from Class AAA. Hence the extra work in batting cages with hitting coach Jeff Pentland.

Johjima's double

Fans seated behind home plate at Safeco Field did a bit of a double-take when they saw who was among them. Seated in full catcher's gear, about 20 rows behind home plate, was a Japanese man in full catcher's gear with a Kenji Johjima game jersey on.

It turns out the man was a popular comedian from Japan, Johjiman Kita, who enjoys impersonating the catcher on Japanese television.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

For the record

Streak: L2

Home: 14-17

Road: 7-20

vs. AL West: 10-12

vs. L.A.: 3-4

vs. Oakland: 3-2

vs. Texas: 4-6

vs. AL East: 5-14

vs. AL Cent.: 4-10

vs. NL: 2-1

vs. LHP: 4-11

vs. RHP: 17-26

Day: 7-11

Night: 14-26

One-run: 5-10

Extra innings: 2-2

Home attendance

Monday's crowd: 22,110

Season total: 875,677

Biggest crowd: 46,334 (March 31)

Smallest crowd: 15,818 (May 6)

Average (31 dates): 28,248

2007 average (31 dates): 29,082