The Mariners pulled off their second straight ninth-inning rally today, scoring three times to beat the Royals 10-9.
It ended an eventful day that includes the return of Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Johjima from Japan’s WBC championship, Felix Hernandez’s first game on the mound since the WBC, the struggles of another closer candidate, and interview with Suzuki that became strained. Here’s a recap:
-Mike Sweeney’s two-out single drove home Ronny Cedeno with the winning run off Royals left-hander Tim Hamulack, giving the Mariners a 14-12-2 record this month. Earlier in the inning, Cedeno hit a two-run double into the left-field corner to tie the score. Wooohooo.
-Mark Lowe gave up three hits and two runs in the top of the ninth as another of the Mariners’ closer candidates does little to help manager Don Wakamatsu decide who’ll finish games. Wakamatsu said he’s no closer now to deciding his closer than he was two weeks ago. Eeek.
-David Aardsma continued to pitch well, throwing the only clean inning of the game for the Mariners, and remains at the head of a fuzzy closer picture. Remember, though, it’s the regular season that counts and Aardsma doesn’t have a big-league save. Hmmmm.
-Felix Hernandez pitched like a guy who hadn’t faced hitters in 10 days. In his first game since March 16 in the WBC, he gave up 12 hits and seven runs, with two walks and six strikeouts. He struggled to keep the ball down and paid for it. On the positive side, he threw 95 pitches and seems on track to be the opening-day starter. Wakamatsu hasn’t said who that would be, but people are starting to get curious. Asked if he’d heard if he would be the opening-day starter, Hernandez said he hadn’t, then asked, “Has the skipper told you anything?” Uh, no.
-Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-3, was thrown out stealing and scored a run before leaving the game after the fifth inning. Then he spent the rest of the afternoon with the media. That included a 30-minute session with Mariners beat reporters that got fairly squirmy when he was asked about offseason reports of clubhouse conflicts that revolved around some teammates’ notion that he played selfishly. At one point, Ken Griffey Jr. stuck his nose into the scrum and called the questioning BS. Ichiro said, “This is so silly. I hate to be wasting time with this kind of thing. I’m surprised at this.” More on this later, and in tomorrow morning’s newspaper.
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