Mariners
Notebook: Ichiro plays it safe at the plate

By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter

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In Ichiro's drive for hits, he bunted in the fourth inning Wednesday and in the second inning last night, which was not odd except that both times the bunt came with two outs and a runner in scoring position.

While this is rarely done in the major leagues, in Japan it is called a "safety bunt" and is done occasionally in.

Asked for his take on this, manager Bob Melvin noted: "We were down by two runs (5-3 Wednesday), the middle of the order was coming up behind him. I know this is not the most popular play in that situation, but he was trying to put us closer to the middle of the order, with the power hitters. Ichiro is not profiled as a home-run hitter, so it was something he felt he had to do."

CHASING GEORGE SISLER George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns set the single-season hit record in 1920: Mariners games remaining: 23. Ichiro is on pace for: 269 hits. Yesterday: Ichiro was 2 for 4 in the Mariners' 7-1 victory. Today: vs. Boston, 7:05 p.m., FSN. (M's RHP Ryan Franklin, 3-14, 5.31, vs. RHP Curt Schilling, 18-6, 3.38). Ichiro vs. Schilling: In their only career meeting, Ichiro was 1 for 4 in the Mariners' 9-7 loss at Fenway Park on May 30.

Melvin said the bunt attempt last night came off a miscommunication that was his fault, but Ichiro said, "The bunt was definitely my mistake."

He apparently did not mean bunting was a mistake, but that the poor bunt was.

"In that situation I do it a lot," he said. "But you have to get it down, you can't make an out."

Ichiro did not do this specifically as part of his drive to surpass George Sisler's 1920 record of 257 hits in a season. He has used the safety bunt several times before this year, and had been successful.

It should be noted that while Ichiro is hitting .371 with runners in scoring position, he has only 54 runs batted in. The outfield defense usually plays him tight enough to cut off his liners or grounders — the majority of his hits — so it is able to hold a runner at third base much more often than with most other hitters.

Two is better than one

Greg Dobbs' memorable pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning Wednesday — he became the first Mariner to hit a homer in his first big-league at-bat — left him in a bit of a predicament. After the game, he was given not one home-run ball, but two.

"One was on my chair when I came in; the other one was given to me by a security guard," said the third baseman, who made his major-league starting debut last night, as did Jeremy Reed in center field. "It's really no problem. I'll just keep them both as the ball."

Bucky's knee a bother

Bucky Jacobsen said he expected to hear last night what day next week his right-knee surgery would be, repairing what he described as "a divot" taken from the cartilage covering of the knee.

"What surprised me was that they found this now when doctors in other organizations went into the knee twice before and didn't find it," the big first baseman said. "The first time, they removed a bursa sac two winters back, after I had originally hurt my knee at (Class AA) Huntsville.

"The knee still hurt the next year and had a fluid buildup. I had it drained seven times. I got three cortisone shots. I thought I had screwed up my rehab, it was so bad."

After last season, when he was in the St. Louis organization, doctors went in and cleaned out what he described as debris from the knee.

"I worked the rehab as perfectly as I could, and I got to where I could run and I was DH most of the time at Tacoma," Jacobsen said. "When I came up, I played first more. Skip (Melvin) asked me if I was all right and I said I could (play first). But last week playing on the turf in Toronto made it act up."

Jacobsen hit in 25 of 31 starts, but he tailed off a bit in his last week of play with his knee troubling him.

"It made me change my stance a bit," he said. "That hurt me, but I think I showed what I can do with a chance. I don't think I won a job in camp next spring. All I can ask is an opportunity to go to camp and win a job."

For Melvin, Jacobsen showed at least that much with 28 RBI in 42 games, a pace that would give him about 100 for a full season.

"Bucky's shown enough for him to be considered for next season," Melvin said. "He's shown he can wait back on breaking balls, can go to the opposite field and go there with power. His minor-league stats caught everyone's attention, and when he came up they didn't just test him with fastballs as they usually do, they went after him with everything and he held his own."

Notes

• Several of the coaches held a meeting on the field with the pitchers and catcher Miguel Olivo before the game. Bench coach Rene Lachemann explained it as an attempt to correct some miscommunication that resulted in several wild pitches in previous games.

• Dobbs was the 88th player to homer in his first major-league at-bat. The last to do it was Olivo, last year with the White Sox. • Edgar Martinez, held to a .053 average by Boston's Tim Wakefield, did not start last night.