Game report: Mariners, especially Eric Byrnes, take one on the chin

The remnants of an 8-4 loss to the Giants today were a lot uglier on the surface than what it means in the worldly view of what the Mariners are trying to accomplish.

Doug Fister wobbled through three innings, allowing six hits, two walks and four runs, although only one was earned. The Mariners are having Fister pitch out of the windup, and the result was several pitches up in the strike zone.

“There’s a lot of things I liked about that outing,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “It wasn’t real pretty but there were a couple of broken bats in there. We’re working on some things and I’m encouraged.”

In other words, don’t count Fister out of the fifth starter competition, even though Jason Vargas has been by far the leader of that pack.

One who isn’t in the fifth-starter race — if he ever was — is left-hander Garrett Olson. He tossed another bad one today, allowing two hits, two walks and two runs while getting only one out in the fourth inning. He isn’t commanding his pitches and the resulting 21.60 ERA isn’t something that you just blame on playing in dry air and hard infields.

Speaking of hard infields, Peoria Stadium played havoc on Chone Figgins’ fielding percentage and Eric Byrnes’ chin.

Figgins made two errors in the eighth inning, one on a fairly slow bouncer that went between his legs and the other on a chopper to his left caromed off the heel of his glove on the short hop. Earlier in the game, shortstop Josh Wilson booted a similar grounder (leading to three unearned runs off Fister).

Wakamatsu defended his fielders, saying the infield became rock-hard in the dry, breezy conditions.

“When we had all that rain (last week), there were some plays he made that were unbelievable,” Wakamatsu said of Figgins. “And you’re looking at a guy like Josh Wilson at shortstop. He can flat play some shortstop, and you’ve seen some balls kick up on him. We’re going to try and get the field watered down a little bit, but the problem is that it dries out so fast with this wind out there.”

Byrnes can surely tell a story of the hard infield. He doubled to the left-center field gap in the fifth inning and, as he sped toward second base, attempted a head-first bellyflop into the bag. He flopped all right, hitting so hard that his face took the brunt of the impact.

Byrned lay on the ground a few seconds, looking like a bird that had just flown into a window, then sprang to his feet as Wakamatsu and trainer Rick Griffin jogged out to check on him.

“He might as well have gotten into a car wreck,” Wakamatsu said. “He hurt his chin, his nose and both elbows. Nothing serious, but it’s going to leave a mark tomorrow.

“He said, ‘How’s my nose look? Does it affect my looks?’ I said, ‘No, you were ugly before.’”

A couple of other highlights:

  • Jose Lopez made his best play so far at third base, diving to his right to glove Juan Uribe’s hard grounder behind the bag. Lopez quickly got to his feet and made a strong throw to first base for the out.
  • Ichiro Suzuki, playing in his fourth straight game, got five at-bats and played all nine innings. He, along with several regulars, won’t make the Tucson trip for games Sunday and Monday. With Tuesday being an off day, he’ll have plenty of time to rest up before Wednesday’s night game against the Rangers.
  • Sean White, whose sore shoulder late last season concerned the Mariners throughout the offseason, pitched another perfect inning to keep his exhibition ERA at 0.00. White’s recovery has been one of the biggest successes in camp — and most-needed considering his value in the bullpen as a guy who can get ground-ball outs when he’s at his best.
  • Felix Hernandez, today’s starter against the Rockies, seemed more excited about the fact he’ll get to bat in the game (without the DH). Before he left the field today, he was showing off his batting stance and swing mechanics to anyone interested.
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