Five innings into another postcard kind of day in Peoria, something even more wonderful is happening with the Mariners.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s is driving the ball at the plate and he’s chasing it down in left field in the Mariners’ game against the Texas Rangers.
That wasn’t the case last weekend, when Griffey was slow to react to balls hit to left field or catch up with those thrown to him at the plate. It’s spring training, after all, and Griffey is still gaining strength in his legs and timing with his
Today, it looks like he’s got it.
Griffey had a walk and two doubles to center field off Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy. The ball he pounded the fifth was a rocket, hitting more than halfway up the 40-foot-tall “batter’s eye” in center field.
Just as important, Griffey looked like a left fielder today and not a shadow of one.
He did lose a fly in the sun in the second inning, but everybody does that down here. Really. He broke well on balls to his right, an indication that his surgically repaired left knee is doing well, charged the base hits dumped into shallow left and, on one play, showed that he’s still got a strong left arm.
Andruw Jones lined a double into the left-field corner and Josh Hamilton charged around second, then around third and toward the plate (remind anyone of a certain memorable moment from the 1995 playoffs?).
Griffey played the ball well in the corner and, with Hamilton not stopping, scooped it up and wheeled with a chest-high throw to relay man Reegie Corona at the edge of the outfield grass. All Corona had to do was turn and throw to the plate to get Hamilton. Corona double-clutched, first pumping toward second before realzing there might be a play at the plate. There wasn’t; his throw was too late.
Still, the play offered the best example yet that Griffey might be OK in left field. He’s no burner anymore but, for one day, he did the job well.
As for the rest of this afternoon’s game, a 7-7 tie with the Rangers, it was a good day for Jarrod Washburn but not so good for Randy Messenger and Cesar Jimenez.
Washburn gave up eight hits and three runs in six innings in the longest outing by a Mariners pitcher at spring training. Better than that, he continued to impress manager Don Wakamatsu in the way he mixed more offspeed pitches into his repertoire. “He is pitching, not throwing like he used to,” Wakamatsu said.
Messenger, so impressive in early games that he jumped into the competition for closer, faltered again by allowing three hits and three runs in the seventh inning. In his last three outings, covering 3 2/3 innings, Messenger has allowed six hits and six earned runs. Cesar Jimenez, also hoping to win a bullpen role, allowed three hits and a run and has a 13.50 ERA.
The Mariners keep bringing Tyson Gillies up from the minor league camp and he keeps producing. Gillies, who played last year with the Everett AquaSox, went 2-for-3, scored twice, drove in a run and stole a base. He’s batting .323. And first baseman Chris Shelton, whose chances of making the team are slim because he’s a non-roster player, continued to swing a hot bat. He went 3-for-5 with two doubles against the Rangers and is batting .488.
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