Mariners
Notebook: Lower part of order puts one over on M's pitchers

By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — While opponents had been smacking Mariners pitchers around at a .302 clip, what the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters were doing to them was worse.

Including last night, the likes of Marco Scutaro and the catching Molina brothers, Jose and Bengie, punished Seattle at .381 (24 for 63). Along with that, they had 12 runs batted in and a dozen more scored.

They had been walked six times and scored three of those times.

"We've only played two teams, and actually we've been hit a lot more than is acceptable in almost all those games," pitching coach Bryan Price said. "So the bottom-of-the-order guys have had a number of people on base for them. That is no excuse. We should be getting everyone out a lot better than we have been, including the eight and nine hitters."

While Seattle is hitting .273 as a team and averaging five runs a game, the pitching has not held up its end.

The staff earned-run average is 5.95, much higher than expected.

Price has been speaking with his pitchers, encouraging them to trust themselves and their stuff, a combination that had the unit second in the league to Oakland last season with a 3.76 ERA.

"I remind them not to try to do more than they can," he said. "We went through this last August. I tell them, 'You have to be one of nine playing good baseball, they don't have to be the one of the nine. There are no saviors here, just guys who should pitch better."

Mateo's missteps

Among the little aspects of good baseball that Seattle has misfired on, you can add reliever Julio Mateo's inability to prevent Chone Figgins from stealing two key bases in the ninth inning Wednesday. The quick Figgins lifted second and third, then scored on Jeff DaVanon's winning sacrifice fly.
 
Mateo threw over a half-dozen times to keep Figgins close to the bag, but his lack of speed to the plate did him in. He had been working on getting quicker to the plate, about 1.3 seconds in spring training, but at least one American League scout put him at about 1.4 seconds now.

"Once he got into a major-league game, he didn't do as well," manager Bob Melvin said. "We had him slide-stepping and using an inside-turn move (throwing to second). But he's just not comfortable, so ... "

Seattle's fundamentals, such as Mateo's quickness delivering a pitch to give his catcher a chance on a base-stealer, have been spotty.

But despite balls missed in the outfield and double plays missed, Seattle led the American League in defense before last night. With three errors and a .989 fielding percentage, they were just ahead of Minnesota and Oakland at .988.

"We are?" Melvin said, when told during a general discussion of the team's lack of sharpness in fundamentals that the Mariners were leading the AL in defense.

It is a baseball corollary: Winning takes sound play. Game in, game out, Seattle is not showing that — on the bases, on defense, in playing the small ball that the lack of offense requires.

"We're not playing the way we're capable of playing," Melvin said. "When you lose games, missing on some of the subtleties stands out. When you win, it hides things. We are not the defensive team we have been, but we have good defensive players out there."

He noted that some subtle things are costing his club. For one thing, Seattle has four steals and four times has been caught stealing, disaster for a team that has to use a running game.

"I think we're fundamentally sound; we're just not showing it right now," Melvin said. "Having so many (10) new guys might be part of it, but we should be playing a little crisper."

Garcia keeps ball count low

Freddy Garcia, who threw only 30 balls of 97 pitches Wednesday, recalled only two three-ball counts in the game.

"The Angels were really aggressive," he said. "They were swinging at just about everything."

As the Mariners want, Garcia pitched off his fastball, establishing his good moving fastball early in the game and going to offspeed pitches later.

"I threw more sliders later," he said. "After (Tim) Salmon hit a fastball good off me his first time, I threw him a slider his second at-bat. It was a bad pitch and he hit it good (two-run homer)."

Putz checks in

J.J. Putz reported to the club yesterday and said he was "ready to help any way I can."

"The way this club has started makes me think of Tacoma's first series in Tucson," said the right-hander, who was the Class AAA Rainiers' closer. "It was cold, windy and rainy. Tucson made seven errors and beat us."

Putz reported that his fellow relievers with Tacoma were pitching well, that Jeff Heaverlo had adjusted well to relief and lefty George Sherrill was off to a very good start.

Note

• Reliever Rafael Soriano pitched for Class A Inland Empire last night, allowing one hit in four innings and striking out five. Soriano, sent down Wednesday, is recovering from a side injury that limited his appearances this spring.

In the same game, Scott Spiezio was 0 for 2 for Inland Empire. Spiezio, recovering from a back injury, is eligible to come off the disabled list.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company