Mariners buy some time by firing Jeff Pentland

Mariners slugger Raul Ibanez wasn't kidding when he said his team had been through some tough times on a just-completed .500 road trip.

It was during that 3-3 sojourn that the Mariners fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland, a likable type who had grown close to a number of players. Ibanez had spent untold hours reviving his bat behind the scenes with Pentland last summer when a prolonged slump seemed to signal Ibanez's career might be ending.

"It's all about results," Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said in explaining why he made the move when he did. "That's probably the biggest thing. We felt that this crew had underperformed for a long period of time. This isn't new."

But Pentland's firing, with 70-year-old team consultant Lee Elia taking over, almost certainly had less to do with results than with optics and timing. After all, both men have similar philosophies on hitting and, as Bavasi said, it isn't news that the Mariners have underperformed for a long time.

They were underperforming back in April, when the team jettisoned right fielder Brad Wilkerson and pinch-hitter Greg Norton. Pentland could have been fired then, before the season was lost, if the aim was to improve on-field results in time for them to mean anything.

Pentland was a holdover from the Mike Hargrove era. Having not been selected with input from new manager John McLaren, common sense had it that he was the most vulnerable of the coaches when it came time to throw someone overboard to preserve the team's public image.

That image took a pounding in April and May, but reached new heights last week when McLaren unleashed an expletive-laden tirade after the team got swept on the eve of the trip to Boston and Toronto.

On that same day, Bavasi withheld postgame towels and a meal spread from players and had them stand by their lockers and be accountable for their play to the media. Bavasi had ripped his players a couple of weeks earlier, accusing them of poor clubhouse leadership and a lack of accountability to each other.

In the weeks since, fans had waited to see when he would back up his words with action. For all the tough talk, no heads had rolled since Wilkerson and Norton. The pressure to do something mounted last week after the McLaren-Bavasi tag team had again spoken out.

Finally, the jettisoning of Pentland was the team's first sacrifice.

Bavasi was asked when the decision to replace Pentland had come.

"Recently," he said.

In hindsight, the first clue of what was ahead came the day of the McLaren rant, when team president Chuck Armstrong ripped into the coaching staff in a closed-door meeting. Armstrong had previously stood behind that staff in all public interviews. With that meeting, he'd effectively served notice of coming change.

Right after, Armstrong flew to Boston, along with Bavasi and assistant John Bowles, while consultant Elia joined the team for one of his visits from his home near Tampa. All hands were on deck for a move three days before it happened. Bavasi was asked later whether having Elia around made it easier to fire Pentland.

"No, it did not make it easier," he said. "We had other options in mind."

But timing is everything.

The team's brain trust had to know the Mariners' hitting woes weren't going to be solved at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox had won 13 in a row. Seattle surprised with an 8-0 win over a shaky Bartolo Colon in the series opener, but the offense slowed after that.

Elia said it was only after the Boston series, late last Sunday, that he was first offered the job. He said he initially declined, out of respect for buddy Pentland, then reconsidered after talking it over with his family. Just last winter, Elia had said he was no longer interested in full-time coaching.

"I'm still not interested in it," he said this week. "I'm a Seattle Mariner guy, I've spent 10 lovely years here. We're going through a tough time right now, and if we can tighten this thing up ... I've discussed it with my wife and daughters and it's not like I'm going away for 100 years. I'll be up here for a little while."

Firing Pentland seems like a calculated move.

After all, the team still has more than half a season left. The hitting woes were still highly visible in Toronto this week.

But by bringing in Elia when it did, the team could always say that he did not have time to impact the Blue Jays series. And it could look ahead to this weekend's home series against the last-place Washington Nationals, knowing there'd be a chance to rack up some wins and declare the Mariners' problems solved.

Or at least keep the wolves at bay long enough to figure out what comes next.

Pentland wasn't McLaren's guy and could have been fired at any time. By dumping him now, the team buys itself some time until the next body has to be tossed overboard to appease angry fans demanding blood.

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