PEORIA, Ariz. – The Seattle Mariners had just gotten their lunch, dinner and today’s breakfast handed to them when manager Mike Hargrove decided to have one of his on-the-spot “discussions.”
“I thought we were in trouble,” said Scott Spiezio, who already has seen Hargrove lay down his discipline the past few weeks.
The topic of this postgame talk was Monday’s 14-8 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, leaving the M’s winless in their first four Cactus League games.
Hargrove gathered them ‘round and …
He praised them.
While Hargrove wasn’t overjoyed to see the Mariners blow a 3-0 lead after one inning and fall behind 14-5, he did like the Mariners’ finishing kick. They scored three runs in the ninth inning when Spiezio worked a walk, Ichiro Suzuki doubled, Jeremy Reed hit a sacrifice fly and Willie Bloomquist hit a two-run homer.
“One of the big things for me is for the team to play with toughness,” Hargrove said. “If you’re mentally tough and exhibit that day-in and day-out, really go out there and bust your rump, you give yourself a chance to win. I felt we did that.”
The team took Hargrove’s speech well, at least after they realized they weren’t going to get chewed out.
“He said some pretty nice stuff and I think it lifted us up a little bit,” Spiezio said. “I hadn’t experienced that before.”
Hargrove is all about maximum effort, figuring the results will follow more often than not.
“There were a number of times when they could have rolled over and said let’s go through the motions, especially getting beat four games in a row,” Hargrove said. “The nine runs we gave up the last three innings were ugly runs. A lot of times that can mentally defeat a team, and these guys didn’t do that. I wanted to let them know that.”
The Brewers led 5-4 before they piled on the runs with Enrique Cruz’s grand-slam off M’s left-hander Matt Thornton in the seventh, then five runs in the ninth off right-hander Dan Reichert.
Hargrove has seen other teams fold, especially in meaningless spring training games.
“The mental toughness we exhibited today is a good thing,” he said. “If we continue to have that kind of effort out of our people, we should have a lot of fun this summer.”
Guardado sharp: Eddie Guardado’s first game action since mid-season last year was a resounding success Monday.
Pitching in a morning B game against the San Diego Padres, Guardado needed just seven pitches – all fastballs – to throw a 1-2-3 inning. Guardado missed the last two months of last season with a rotator cuff injury.
“I kept the ball down, there was some life on it and I didn’t feel anything in my shoulder,” he said. “It went good, real good. I couldn’t be happier.”
The Mariners have brought Guardado along slowly at spring training, delaying his appearance in games until he solved problems with his throwing mechanics. He had been scheduled to pitch last Friday but that appearance was pushed back to Monday.
“We got it worked out and there was no overstress on my shoulder today,” he said. “I don’t think I have anything to worry about anymore.”
Pitching against a Padres lineup comprised mostly of backups, Guardado allowed only a warning-track fly to center field and two ground balls to the infield. What pleased Hargrove the most is that Guardado continues to be healthy.
“He got through a seven-pitch inning, and you’ve got to throw a lot of strikes to do that,” Hargrove said. “It was especially encouraging.”
Harbinger?: The last time the Mariners lost their first four Cactus League games, they went on to win 116 in the regular season.
Hargrove would take a repeat of 2001.
“The good thing is that these games here don’t count,” he said. “We certainly want to win ballgames, but I know when I was with Baltimore we won the Grapefruit League two years in a row and we struggled to keep from losing 100 games both years.”
Short on outfielders: The Mariners’ outfielders have been marathon men lately.
One day after Randy Winn played all 10 innings, he played six on Monday. Scott Spiezio played all nine innings Monday in right field, as did Jeremy Reed in center.
It’s uncommon this early in the exhibition games for players to go the distance, but injuries have forced the Mariners to do it.
Chris Snelling is out another five weeks because of knee surgery, Jamal Strong’s playing time is being limited because he’s coming off knee surgery last year, and Shin-soo Choo developed a sore arm Monday and couldn’t play in the afternoon game.
Strong played eight innings in the morning B game, as did Choo.
“Choo made three really good throws (in the B game) but he said his arm was a little sore, so we did this to be on the safe side,” Hargrove said.
It won’t get much easier today because the Mariners will split the squad for games against the Brewers in Peoria and the Angels in Tempe.
“We’ll be OK,” Hargrove said. “It just means some of the people will have to play a little longer than they’d like. But they’re all young guys, so that’s OK.”
Spiezio, trying to find his role on the team after a poor 2004 season cost him his starting job at third base, welcomes the added playing time.
“Maybe a lot of guys aren’t used to it, but that’s how Mike runs camp,” he said. “I like it because I get at-bats. I got to see both lefties and righties today. Your body’s not conditioned for it now, but in the long run it will help us.”
Shining moment: Thomas Oldham said nerves were getting the best of him in the bullpen Monday, and for good reason.
The Brewers had tattooed every other Mariner pitcher, and in the seventh inning Oldham would be next on the hill for the first time in a major league game.
“In the bullpen, it didn’t take me very long to get warm because of the adrenaline,” said Oldham, a left-hander who was one of the minor leaguers the Mariners suited up for the game. “All I wanted to do was control the adrenaline and throw strikes.”
He did, striking out Chris Magruder for the final out in the seventh after the Brewers had scored four runs for a 9-4 lead.
“I tried to take it one pitch at a time and not think of the big situation,” said Oldham, who pitched for the Everett AquaSox in 2003. “I just wanted to think small.”
Of note: Mariners starter Bobby Madritsch worked a scoreless first inning, then gave up a two-run homer to Nelson Cruz in the second and another run in the third on a walk and a single. “He was disappointed because he couldn’t spot his put-away pitch,” Hargrove said. “But as I explained to him, eventually I want him to get to that but I’d rather he get to that in the fourth week of spring training than the second week of spring training.” … M’s catcher Miguel Olivo stole home in the fourth inning, although it wasn’t a textbook play. He was on third and Spiezio on first when Spiezio broke toward second and was caught in a rundown. Olivo sprinted for home and barely crossed the plate before Spiezio was tagged out. “We really screwed it up. We just happened to wiggle our way into scoring a run when we shouldn’t have,” Hargrove said. … Olivo is 2-for-2 in throwing out base-stealers. He got the Brewers’ Dave Krynzel in the first inning Monday. … Magruder, a former University of Washington star, played the final four innings Monday, going 1-for-2 with a walk, a strikeout and a two-run single in the ninth.
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