Mariner update

Published 9:00 pm Friday, April 21, 2006

Opponent: Detroit Tigers

When: 6:05 p.m.

Where: Safeco Field

TV: FSN (cable)

Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)

Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Gil Meche (1-0, 6.46 earned run average) vs. left-hander Nate Robertson (1-2, 7.36).

Guardado’s walk on the wild side

The barn didn’t have a broad side. The ocean seemed like a small puddle.

And home plate? Forget about trying to find it.

When Eddie Guardado looked in from the mound Thursday night during the most perplexing inning of his career as a closer, the plate looked like a while speck in the dirt.

Guardado walked four in the ninth inning, forcing home the Texas Rangers’ winning run in a 4-3 victory.

“It was a weird feeling. Everything around me seemed so big out there,” Guardado said. “I was feeling like, ‘What, I’ve got to hit this teeny little circle?’ It was frustrating.”

Guardado hadn’t walked four batters in an inning since 1995 with the Minnesota Twins, during one of his 25 career starts.

“I don’t remember the last time I walked two guys back-to-back,” he said. “I don’t walk guys.”

The last time he walked 20 or more in a season was 2001 with the Twins. He walked 15 in 561/3 innings last year with the Mariners and had walked two in 42/3 innings this season.

Until Thursday.

The Mariners had tied the score 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Guardado walked Rod Barajas, the Rangers’ leadoff hitter in the ninth. Then, after he walked Gary Matthews Jr. with out, Guardado said he lost his composure.

“What frustrates me most is that I let the situation control me rather than me controlling the situation,” he said. “The second guy I walked, I was out there cursing myself on the mound.”

He struck out Mark Teixeira on a 3-2 pitch, but walked Phil Nevin to force in a run.

Guardado said he didn’t pitch with any sense of trying to redeem himself after giving up a game-ending two-run homer on Monday to Mark Loretta in Boston.

“Boston is going to happen,” he said. “I was right there with (control of) my pitches and he hit one out. That happens. But walking four guys is a different story for me. You want to give your team a chance to win and I didn’t give us a chance.”

He admitted to spending a restless night at home after the game Thursday, but came to Safeco Field on Friday eager to get back to his daily routine.

“Last night was tough for me to sleep,” Guardado said. “But I woke up in the morning feeling good, feeling like I’m ready to get them. I want to get right back out there and pitch.”

And, he hoped, to have that feeling that the strike zone looks as big as the ocean.

Man with a glove: Nobody expected Raul Ibanez to play left field with the speed and agility of Randy Winn after the Mariners traded Winn to the Giants last July. Already this season, however, Ibanez has shown his value goes well beyond his bat.

Thursday, he made one of the best defensive plays of the year when he sprinted from left field and made a sliding back-hand catch of a pop foul nest to the grandstand railing near the left-field line.

“It wasn’t but a few years ago when people thought of him as a liability out there. Now, he’s solid,” said first-base coach Mike Goff, who coaches the outfielders. “I’ve had him since 1993 when he was a catcher/first baseman in Class A at Bellingham. He’s a self-made player. Through the hard work and the time he’s put in, he’s turned himself into a solid major league outfielder. His routes are outstanding, his jumps have gotten better and better.”

One reason for Ibanez’s success has been his offseason workout regimen focusing on improving his speed.

“He’s actually covering ground now, where years ago he was a clodder and you didn’t know if he was going to get to a ball or not,” Goff said. “Now, when the ball is hit up, you’re pretty comfortable with him out there.

“That play he made last night, he made it (to the ball) easy. It wasn’t easy at all. He was dealing with the wall and he was coming at full speed. He took a quick peek to see where he was at and he made the catch. That was a big-league play.”

Of note: Entering Friday, the Mariners’ Willie Bloomquist and the Yankees’ Johnny Damon have stolen 16 straight bases going back to last year. It’s the longest current streak in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Bloomquist made his fifth start of the season Friday, but it was his first at shortstop. He’d started three games in center field and one at second base. … This weekend’s series not only brings former Mariners shortstop Carlos Guillen back to Seattle, but also Ramon Santiago. Guillen played for the M’s from 1998-2003 and Santiago in 2004 and 2005. … Coach Lorenzo Romar threw out the ceremonial first pitch during a pregame ceremony honoring the University of Washington men’s basketball team.

Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer