EVERETT — Former Seattle Mariner pitcher Jamie Moyer was already headed to the Emerald City for today’s Ken Griffey Jr. jersey retirement.
But Moyer also made a side journey up to Everett Memorial Stadium to watch his oldest son, Dillon, who is now pitching for the Everett AquaSox.
“We made it a couple of days longer and came up here and hung out with him a bit,” Jamie Moyer said Friday. “It’s fun. I haven’t seen him pitch in a while. He didn’t pitch (Thursday) night so hopefully he’ll get in a game tonight. If so, great. If not there is always tomorrow.”
Dillon is attempting to make the transition from infielder to pitcher. The second Moyer brother, Hutton, is an infielder with Inland Empire, the Advanced Class A California League affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jamie, famous for his 25-year career as a soft-tossing southpaw, didn’t particularly encourage his two older sons to follow his path on the mound.
“Being right-handed and pitching you better do something pretty special in today’s game,” Jamie said. “When they were little, people would always try to compare them to myself, which truly isn’t fair. We encouraged them to find another position and they both really enjoyed playing the infield.”
Making the journey with Jamie was 13-year-old McCabe, the third Moyer son and fifth overall of the eight Moyer kids. A lefty like his father, McCabe joined Dillon to shag fly balls in the outfield during batting practice.
Jamie spent 11 of his 25 major-league seasons with the Mariners. His last appearance in the majors came with Colorado in 2012 and he officially announced his retirement at the conclusion of the 2013 season.
Does the 53-year-old think he could still pitch?
“Mentally I do, but physically it’s impossible,” he said. “I know that I can’t.”
A family affair
Jamie Moyer might be the best-known, but several other AquaSox players have family members in town for the five-game series with Hillsboro.
Everett middle infielder Donnie Walton’s parents, Rob and Michelle, are making their first trip to see Donnie play with the AquaSox.
Meanwhile, infielder Nick Zammarelli’s dad, also named Nick, is out from Lincoln, Rhode Island for the third time already this summer.
“It’s usually a good time to take off work,” Everett manager Rob Mummau said. “There’s a lot of dads here and it’s always nice to see the parents.”
Frogs lacked key hits in Thursday loss
The AquaSox fell 9-4 Thursday despite pounding out a dozen hits against the Hops. They finished 5-for-21 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 in the defeat.
“We had a lot of opportunities to try to get back in the game, but couldn’t find that one big hit or a couple big hits,” Mummau said. “That’s baseball. That will happen.”
Thursday starter Reggie McClain wasn’t as crisp as he has been in recent starts. He ended up surrendering two home runs to Ramon Hernandez including a two-out grand slam in the third that pushed Hillsboro’s lead from 1-0 to 5-0.
“He didn’t have his best stuff or his best control, but he did compete well and was one pitch away from being out of the inning,” Mummau said. “One pitch up in the zone and he gave it up for a grand slam. But he’ll learn from it.”
Notes
Seattle Mariners shortstop Ketel Marte started at shortstop Friday in the second game of his three-game rehab stint with the AquaSox. He will play Saturday with the Frogs and on Sunday with Class AAA Tacoma … AquaSox outfielder Eric Filia entered Friday’s game with a 21-game on-base streak and tied for fourth in the league in hitting with a .321 average. He’s tied with Zammarelli, who is also hitting .321.
For the latest AquaSox news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.
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