By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
CLEVELAND – Bret Boone, the man with the most productive bat all season for the Seattle Mariners, has nearly disappeared from the offense in the playoffs.
He is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the three American League Division Series games against the Cleveland Indians, including a performance Saturday that spoke volumes about why the Mariners have struggled offensively in the series.
Boone struck out four times and walked once in the Mariners’ 17-2 loss at Jacobs Field. He also committed the first of three Mariners errors when he pulled first baseman John Olerud off the bag with a bad throw in the second inning.
“I played a terrible game,” Boone said. “I can’t take it back. I didn’t help us at all.”
How bad was it?
“I was ticked at Cameron for getting a hit in the ninth,” Boone said, forcing a smile.
Mike Cameron’s two-out double off John Rocker brought Boone to the plate, where Rocker dusted him away with a curveball for strike three to end the game.
“I just haven’t been swinging the bat well,” Boone said. “They’ve pitched me well, but that’s no excuse.”
Boone isn’t alone.
The third, fourth and fifth hitters in the Seattle batting order – Boone, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud – are batting a combined 3-for-32 in the series. Martinez is 2-for-10 and Olerud 0-for-10.
Manager Lou Piniella, who said Friday that he might bat Jay Buhner fifth and move Olerud to sixth, instead went with his usual batting order on Saturday.
“We’re going to change it around from the first game,” Piniella said.
To what?
“I’m not sure,” Piniella answered. “But we’re going to change it around.”
He could go with a more left-handed lineup against right-hander Bartolo Colon, who overpowered the Mariners in a 5-0 Game 1 victory.
However, Piniella’s only left-handed options on the bench are switch-hitting outfielder Stan Javier, backup catcher Tom Lampkin, rookie infielder Ramon Vazquez and left fielder Al Martin.
Martin injured his left (throwing) elbow several weeks ago and not only has been limited to pinch hitting and designated hitter roles, he hasn’t been allowed to throw a ball overhand.
Cleansing breath: C.C. Sabathia, in the jam of his life in the first inning, walked behind the mound and took a deep breath.
The bases were loaded with Mariners, there was one out and Jay Buhner stepped to the plate. If a 21-year-old rookie is going to start shaking, that was the time.
“I was just like, ‘OK, settle down,’” Sabathia said. “I took a deep breath and tried to put a strike on the outside corner.”
Buhner popped it up, and first baseman Jim Thome caught it near the railing in foul territory for the second out. Dan Wilson, the next hitter, popped up to nearly the same spot to get Sabathia out of the inning.
“I was just trying to get a ground ball,” Sabathia said. “I just threw a fastball away and was lucky he (Buhner) popped it up. I was trying to get two outs with one pitch.”
Sabathia said he wasn’t a wreck when he started the game, but he definitely felt the nerves.
“I actually slept pretty good last night. I wasn’t nervous at all,” he said. “When I got on the mound that first inning, man, it was just a totally different feeling. I was excited, I was nervous all in one. I think that’s what shook me up in the first.”
Veteran second baseman Roberto Alomar helped bring Sabathia back down.
“Robbie came up to me and said, ‘Everybody knows you can pitch. You’ve been doing it all year. Just settle down and throw strikes. We are going to score runs.’”
Bringing the heat, Part II: With Bartolo Colon starting for the Indians today, the Mariners are hoping that he won’t be close to the pitcher who dominated them in Game 1 on Tuesday.
Colon overpowered the Mariners with a fastball that reached 99 mph on the Safeco Field radar gun in a 5-0 victory.
It prompted some of the Mariners to say that, thankfully, Colon doesn’t pitch that way all the time.
Indians manager Charlie Manuel agrees, in a different sort of way.
“Can he top what he did the other day? I’ve seen him better than he was in Seattle,” Manuel said. “At the same time, as long as he pitches good enough to win, that’s basically all we can ask of him.”
Casual conversation: When the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki stood on second base during a seventh-inning pitching change, he engaged in a long conversation with Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel and second baseman Roberto Alomar.
“We were teaching him some Spanish lessons,” Vizquel said. “He was speaking English pretty good and he throws some Spanish words out there. But we just let him know some other stuff in Spanish.”
Team player: Paul Abbott, a starter all season, had no complaints after manager Lou Piniella announced that Freddy Garcia would start today’s game, just as he hasn’t complained about spending the postseason in the bullpen.
“It’s what is best for the team,” Abbott said. “It says Mariners on my uniform, not Paul Abbott.”
Pregame scare: Mariners third baseman David Bell, who missed almost two weeks in late September because of a strained muscle in his rib cage, hurt his back during pregame warmups and needed assistance from the team’s medical staff.
Dr. Mitch Storey, the team physician, said it was just a back spasm and Bell went to the clubhouse for treatment and played the entire the game.
Weather report: The Weather Channel was one of the more popular TV destinations in Cleveland, where the clouds got thicker as the morning turned into afternoon Saturday.
It looked like the 60 percent chance of rain at game time was coming true. About three hours before the first pitch, however, the clouds burned away and the day turned warm and humid. The temperature was 77 degrees at the first pitch.
Today’s game could be in trouble.
The forecast was for heavy thunderstorms overnight with a 90 percent chance of rain today. If there’s a rainout in this series, the schedule would move back a day and the winner would lose the day off before the ALCS.
Waiting for a game time: The Mariners didn’t learn until long after they had left the ballpark Saturday when today’s game will start.
The 10:12 a.m. (Seattle time) start wasn’t set until after the New York Yankees beat the Oakland A’s Saturday night to extend that series another day.
Going into Saturday, the Mariners didn’t know if they would play today at 10:20, 1:20 or 4:20 p.m.
Manager Lou Piniella didn’t seem too worried about it.
“I don’t think it will have much of an impact,” he said. “I’ll have one less glass of wine.”
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