This hasn’t been the easiest first five weeks as a Seattle Mariner for Brendan Ryan. He has fought his own swing along with an unfamiliar bunch of pitchers in the American League after he’s spent his career in the NL with the St. Louis Cardinals.
That’s why, before Ryan came
to bat in the ninth inning tonight with the Mariners’ potential winning run at third base, he left the on-deck circle and went to the dugout rail for advice.
He’d seen White Sox left-hander Matt Thornton pound the Mariners’ right-handers inside with his 95 mph fastball – a pitch that Ryan said looks more like 100 mph because of Thornton’s easy motion. So Ryan asked Justin Smoak, who’d hit a soft popup to second base for the first out in the bottom of the ninth, how much that fastball runs in to a right-hander.
“This is a guy I’d only seen on TV,” Ryan said. “I specifically remember him in the All-Star game blowing fastballs by everybody. His 95 mph plays like 100, and on top of that 95 his ball rides in on right-handers. I wanted to make sure I was on the same page with my plan and what Smokey saw.”
Thornton pounded one in on Ryan, but then left the next pitch over the plate.
“That’s the one you want,” Ryan said.
He didn’t try to do too much – just slapped it into center field for a single that scored Adam Kennedy to win the game, 3-2.
It gave Felix Hernandez a third victory in his past three decisions and avoided what seemed like a no-decision.
“Felix was putting his heart and soul into this,” Ryan said. “He would have pitched 14 or 15 rounds if (manager Eric Wedge) would have let him.”
Hernandez was as dominant as he has been since his last complete game, opening night at Oakland, and maybe even moreso. He didn’t allow a hit until Juan Pierre’s single to start the fourth inning and made only one mistake, a hanging slider that Carlos Quentin drove into the left-field seats for a homer that tied the score 2-2.
The Mariners had scored twice in the sixth off White Sox starter Phil Humber, getting RBI doubles from Smoak and Milton Bradley. But they looked fairly feeble after Thornton entered the game in the eighth.
Thornton got Ichiro Suzuki to fly out and, even though Chone Figgins followed that with a one-out double, he blew away Bradley and Miguel Olivo on strikeouts. Bradley was so incensed at the third-strike call that he said some not-so-magic words to umpire Mike Muchlinski, who quickly ejected him. That’s when Bradley turned his ire to full blast and went after Muchlinski.
At a time when the NHL playoffs are in full steam, Wedge might have made the biggest save of the night when he pulled Bradley away from the umpire, yanking him by the back of his jersey. Only six days earlier, Bradley bumped an ump in Boston and was suspended for a game. He didn’t appear to bump Muchlinski, but Wedge wasn’t taking any chances and literally dragged him away.
An inning later, Bradley was one of the few who didn’t get involved in the celebration on the field after Ryan’s game-winning hit.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
