TORONTO — The update on ailing center fielder Franklin Gutierrez was a good-news, bad-news report, and the bottom line was there is no way to know when he’ll return to the Seattle Mariners.
The partially torn pectoral muscle Gutierrez suffered in spring training has healed well and he is throwing without pain.
The problem? He’s developed plantar fasciitis in a heel and has been hobbled by the condition, which is extremely painful and can be difficult to get past.
“He’s been dealing with it the last three or four days,” Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. “I’ve never had it, but know lots of guys who have. I don’t think we know what to expect, time-wise.”
Fatherly advice
Reliever Steve Delabar has become a seventh-inning staple for the Mariners’ bullpen, a man with a 97 mph fastball, solid changeup and developing slider.
His 2012 didn’t start particularly well.
“Four of the first five hits I allowed were home runs,” Delabar said, shaking his head.
The problem wasn’t that he’d lost his stuff.
“I was falling behind, getting into hitters counts — and that produced some big swings,” Delabar said. “I wasn’t that worried, because I knew what I’d done wrong. I just had to get back to throwing ‘strike one’ with the first pitch.”
The home runs?
“I challenge hitters, and a couple of times left pitches up,” Delabar said. “But falling behind let guys key in on a location. I missed with a couple of sliders, but I’ve worked on that and now they’re not flat.
“That was frustrating, getting beat with my third-best pitch. If you’re ahead in the count, it’s completely different.”
How did he keep his head during that early stretch?
“The guys were great, but I always remember something my father told me: ‘You’re only as good as your next game,’” Delabar said. “If you’re going good, that’s just as true as when you’re going bad.”
In his past 21/3 innings, Delabar hasn’t allowed a run.
Short hops
Chone Figgins, who had three hits Thursday, wasn’t in the lineup Friday. What’s up with that? “It’s a tough matchup for Chone against Rickey Romero,” Wedge said. “We wanted to give Dustin Ackley another look up top.” Figgins was 0-for-8 in his career against Romero. Ackley? He’d never faced the Toronto lefty. … After hitting .161 over his first 12 games of the season, Michael Saunders hit .333 in the next five. … Expect infielder Kyle Seager back at third base today after a few days off. And if Alex Liddi keeps hitting, don’t be surprised to find Seager at third and Liddi in left field soon. … Seattle plays its next six games on artificial turf in Toronto and Tampa, and already went 1-1 on the stuff in Japan. The last season the Mariners had a winning season on artificial turf was 2003.
Larry LaRue, The News Tribune
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