SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners can accept a split of their series against the Detroit Tigers, especially after getting little production in the four games from Ichiro Suzuki.
Now they must wait to see if they’ll even have their star leadoff hitter in the lineup for a while.
As an 11-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers steadily got away from the Mariners on Sunday, Suzuki was hit above the outside of his right knee by a pitch from Detroit’s Justin Verlander in the fifth inning.
He stumbled, stopped and limped to first base but came out of the game minutes later when he labored to reach second on a wild pitch. The Mariners said X-rays were negative and his playing status is day-to-day because of a bruised thigh.
“I won’t know (anything) until tomorrow,” Suzuki said after the game in the Mariners’ clubhouse, where he was limping and had his right leg wrapped.
It had been a difficult weekend for Suzuki after a memorable week in which he won the All-Star Game MVP and signed a $90 million, five-year contract extension with the Mariners. In four games against the Tigers, he went 2-for-14 and his average dropped from .359 to .350.
“There was so much going on for him last week,” manager John McLaren said. “The All-Star Game is always hectic. You’ve got to sign a million things, there are workouts, you reporters want to talk to him and the Japanese press wants to talk to him. Then he had the other deal with the contract, wrapping that up. I would think he got worn down a little bit mentally.”
Suzuki had a good day going against Verlander, hitting a single and scoring in the first inning and grounding out to second base in the second to drive in a run.
He batted in the fifth with Willie Bloomquist on first base, and Verlander tried to move him off the plate with a down-and-in slider. Instead, the pitch bore too far in on Suzuki, hitting him just above his right knee.
Suzuki talked McLaren and trainer Rick Griffin into leaving him in the game, but it became obvious a few minutes later how badly he was hurting when he struggled to reach second on a wild pitch.
“You could see he was in pain,” McLaren said. “He tried to stay in, but I saw enough.”
Don’t be surprised if McLaren uses Suzuki’s sore leg as an opportunity to rest a player who rarely wants a day off.
“He has assured me he feels strong, but we’ll see how he feels (today) and go from there,” McLaren said. “If it’s sore or anything, it might be a good time to give him a rest.”
The entire game was a pain for the Mariners, who couldn’t make the most of early opportunities against Verlander before he found a rhythm. Verlander threw 47 pitches after two innings, but needed just six to get through the third and smothered the Mariners the rest of the way. Two of the Mariners’ runs off Verlander came on wild pitches.
The Mariners scored three in the ninth off Tigers reliever Zach Miner when Raul Ibanez hit a sacrifice fly and Jose Guillen a two-run homer.
By then, the game had long gotten away from Mariners and starter Jeff Weaver.
He’d breezed through two innings and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third by allowing one run, then struggled again in the fourth when the Tigers scored four times. Marcus Thames’ three-run homer gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead. They played add-on from there, getting homers from Omar Infante and Magglio Ordonez.
“Jeff got the ball up some,” McLaren said. “He was battling his control a little bit.”
Despite their day of pain and frustration, the Mariners didn’t lose any ground in the American League West. The first-place Angels lost, too, and the gap between them and the Mariners remained at three games.
If anything, the Mariners came out of the weekend believing they can play with the best of the AL.
“I thought we played well this series,” McLaren said. “This game wasn’t reflective of that. It was a well-fought series and there was a lot of great baseball. After this series, I think we can take the field with anybody.”
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