KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Taijuan Walker’s season appears over.
Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon didn’t completely rule out Walker from another start prior to Thursday’s series finale against the Royals but conceded, “Taijuan is most likely done for the year.”
The issue is one of workload.
Walker, 23, has pitched a career-high 169 2/3 innings after being limited a year ago by innings to 129 innings at all levels. Clubs are generally hesitant for young pitchers to go much beyond a 30-inning increase.
“I weighed a lot of things,” McClendon said. “Ensuring that he’s healthy and goes into next season feeling good about what he’s accomplished this year, that outweighed everything else.”
Even so, McClendon withheld a decision until Thursday — one day after a 4-3 loss to Kansas City stalled the Mariners’ late-season charge by dropping them to 74-78 with 10 games remaining.
How much that loss swayed McClendon’s decision isn’t certain but, had the Mariners won, Walker said he expected to start Friday against the Angels in Anaheim, Calif.
“I was getting ready to pitch Friday,” he said. “We had a tough loss (Wednesday). If we would have won, I would have pitched.”
McClendon only admitted it would have been “tougher” to bypass Walker had the Mariners won and moved closer to Houston in the race for the American League’s final wild-card berth.
Instead, the Mariners, at 74-78, entered Thursday trailing the Astros by 5 1/2 games with 10 games remaining. Houston had an open date in the schedule.
Lefty swingman Vidal Nuño will now start Friday at Anaheim and likely draw another start Sept. 30 against Houston at Safeco Field.
If Walker is done, he finishes his first full big-league season at 11-8 with a 4.56 ERA in 29 starts. He recovered from a disappointing start by going 10-3 with a 3.62 ERA in his final 20 starts.
“I learned a lot,” he said, “about using my off-speed and mixing pitches. Just competing. That was the biggest thing. Learning how to compete. And how to just stick with it.
“I had a couple of bad starts, but if you keep working hard, eventually you’ll get rewarded.”
Miller’s learning curve
Converted shortstop Brad Miller drew a third straight start Thursday in center field; his 11th start there in 21 games since an Aug. 31 trade sent Austin Jackson to the Chicago Cubs.
His comfort level?
“Marginally a little better,” Miller said. “It hasn’t been too much time, and it’s still obviously new. Just trying to get as many reps as I can.”
The change coincides with a uptick in his production.
Miller entered Thursday with a .333 average (17-for-51) since Jackson departed. His overall average is up to .254 and his homer in Tuesday’s victory was his career-best 10th of the season.
Working overtime
The Mariners set a franchise record Wednesday by playing their 22nd extra-inning game in a 4-3 loss to Kansas City in 10 innings.
They are 10-12 in those games.
The Mariners’ previous high was 21 extra-inning games in 2013 (6-15) and 1982 (9-12). The record low is seven on three occasions: 2007 (5-2), 2005 (2-5) and 2000 (3-4).
Extra innings, generally, have not been kind to the Mariners in their 39-year history.
They are 239-274 overall in extra innings (.466) and have only posted a winning record in 11 seasons (most recently at 6-5 in 2011). Their best year for extra innings was 1984, when they went 12-4.
Looking back
It was 24 years ago Friday — Sept. 25, 1991 — that the Mariners passed two million in home attendance for the first time when they drew 27,256 for a 7-1 loss to Texas at the Kingdome.
The Mariners finished the season at 2,147,945.
This year’s club has drawn 2,077,078 with six home dates remaining. The franchise record is 3,540,482 in 2002.
Short hops
Rookie shortstop Ketel Marte entered Thursday with an 11-game hitting streak. He was batting .409 (18-for-44) in that span and had raised his average from .261 to .298…Outfielder James Jones turned 27 on Thursday…The Mariners entered Thursday with a 40-37 road record with four road games remaining. They needed to win one of the four to clinch successive years with a winning road record. They haven’t done that since a four-year run from 2000-03.
On tap
The Mariners open their final road series of the season at 7:05 p.m. Friday when they play the first of three weekend games against the Angels in Anaheim.
Lefty swingman Vidal Nuño (1-3, 3.64) will face Los Angeles right-hander Garrett Richards (14-11, 3.73). The game can be seen on Root Sports Northwest and heard on 710 ESPN.
The Mariners conclude the season next week with six games at Safeco Field: three games against Houston and three games against Oakland.
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