M's Notebook | Lopez provides relief to Weaver

Mariners second baseman Jose Lopez admits he felt badly about the grounder he let slip under his glove in Monday night's win over Boston.

But Lopez insists there is no lingering tension between him and pitcher Jeff Weaver. Television shots appeared to show Weaver shouting in Lopez's direction after the play, which led to a pair of Red Sox runs, though the pitcher later said his barbs were directed mainly at himself.

"He said to me 'Let's go!' " Lopez said. "He said 'I'm still with you. Let's go play!' And I told him: 'I've got your back.' "

Lopez did indeed, making up for the two runs against by lining a two-run, tiebreaking single to left field in the fifth inning. Weaver came out to the top step of the dugout and could be seen cheering and shouting as the runs scored.

"He said 'Thank you!' " Lopez said with a chuckle. "I said 'I told you before that I've got your back. Now, I'll catch the ground balls.' "

The Lopez single came on a 1-2 pitch from Red Sox starter Julian Tavarez. Lopez said he had expected Tavarez to throw a sinker on the outside corner and was cheating a bit by lunging across the plate.

Tavarez threw Lopez a slider instead. But the location was toward the middle-to-outer part of the plate, where Lopez was already leaning.

"I got a lucky break," he said.

Lopez saved at least one run in the third inning of Tuesday night's game, diving to his right to snare a Mike Lowell line drive up the middle with runners at the corners and two out.

Lopez entered Tuesday's game just 9 for 42 (.214) at the plate since his brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in Venezuela two weeks ago today. He had looked into the possibility of flying home during the all-star break, but found that it would take him almost an entire day to get there and another to return.

Instead, he said, he will now wait until the season is over until he sees his family.

Batista meets Halladay

Mariners pitcher Miguel Batista will square off against former teammate Roy Halladay on Saturday when the Toronto Blue Jays visit Safeco Field. Batista pitched for Toronto in 2004 and 2005 and has one of the tougher workout regimens going. But he claims those workouts are nothing compared to what Halladay puts his body through.

"He's crazy," Batista said. "When I was there, I had a discussion with the pitching coach and told him I believed he got hurt so much because he worked himself to death."

Halladay has one of baseball's top winning percentages over the past five years, compiling an 86-33 record, but has not made it through a full season since winning the Cy Young Award in 2003.

"I remember the first year I was there, they asked me how many bullpens I'd thrown before spring training and I told them one," Batista said. "The guy I told this to was like 'What do you mean? Halladay already threw 22 bullpens.'

"And I told him: 'That's him.' "

Batista is all in favor of working out. But he warns that it's also important to "listen to your body" and take a day off if feeling overworked. It's more important for a pitcher's body to be loose, he said, than physically overpowering.

One of the ways Batista is staying "loose" these days is by learning to play an electronic soprano saxophone. He's paying a professor from UW to give him private lessons because: "I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument."

Batista prefers the electronic version, which he keeps by his locker, because he can put it on "silent mode" and use headphones to hear the music so that it doesn't disturb his teammates.

Why the saxophone?

"Kenny G., big time!" he said.

Notes

• Reliever Eric O'Flaherty is savoring big-league life, but got a taste of what might have been this past weekend when Oregon State won its second consecutive College World Series. O'Flaherty signed a letter of intent to play for the Beavers before signing with Seattle after being drafted in the sixth round in 2003.

"It probably would have been fun but I'd rather be here," O'Flaherty said. "Even last year, when I was playing, I was already in Double A. I remember thinking that winning the championship probably would have been something I'd never forget, but that this isn't too bad in itself.

"Either way, I couldn't have really gone wrong."

• Left fielder Raul Ibanez expects to return to action this weekend from a hamstring injury suffered last Saturday against the Reds. Ibanez said his biggest concern is in rushing back too quickly.

"I hurt it pretty good but it was just a notch below being really serious," Ibanez said. "So, I have to be careful. When I come back, I want it to be a case where I can keep playing for the rest of the year."

• Mariners manager Mike Hargrove knows what the Red Sox are going through as they try not to squander a huge division lead. The Red Sox have endured some criticism in Boston after their winning pace slowed in recent weeks and Hargrove was asked by a Boston writer for his take.

Hargrove managed a Cleveland Indians squad in the 1990s that used to run away with the AL Central division before the all-star break.

"It's just a different kind of fear," Hargrove said of dealing with such a situation. "The fear, when it starts out, is when you're trying to build a lead. And then, once you build a sizeable lead, like the Red Sox have done, your fear is just not giving it up."

• Seattle's win over Boston on Monday night drew the highest television rating for an FSN game in three seasons. The game drew an 11.7 Nielsen rating in the Seattle area, the largest since a 12.5 rating on Oct. 1, 2004, when Edgar Martinez played his final game against the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field.

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

For the record

Streak: W4

Home: 23-15

Road: 18-18

vs. AL West: 12-10

vs. L.A.: 2-7

vs. Oakland: 4-1

vs. Texas: 6-2

vs. AL East: 11-7

vs. AL Central: 9-7

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 15-6

vs. RHP: 26-27

Day: 11-11

Night: 30-22

One-run: 12-9

Extra innings: 2-0

Home attendance

Tuesday's crowd: 35,045

Season total: 1,155,191

Biggest crowd: 46,340 (June 22)

Smallest crowd: 16,555 (May 2)

Average (38 dates): 30,400

2006 average (38 dates): 26,996