NEW YORK — When Brendan Ryan took Hiroki Kuroda’s fastball to his left elbow, his first thought was the memory of that same elbow being shattered the same way.
“That’s what scared me so much,” Ryan said Sunday, his elbow still hugely swollen 24 hours after he was hit. “The last time it happened, it got me on exactly the same spot — the point of the elbow — and broke the elbow.”
“I remember the lighting wasn’t good, no one could see well and the pitcher was trying to get a little something extra on the pitch,” Ryan said. “He got me good.”
Who was the pitcher?
“I don’t remember,” Ryan said. “It was my first year in junior high school.”
Interesting numbers
Here’s an interesting set of numbers: Seattle has played more games against winning teams this season — 73 — than any team in the majors.
Colorado is second (69), and no American League team other than Seattle has more than 66 such games.
Against teams with a winning record, the Mariners are 31-42. Against teams under .500? They 20-17.
The bad news: The Mariners next 10 games are against winning teams.
Not fooled again
The box score wills show outfielder Trayvon Robinson went 0-for-4 on Sunday, dropping his batting average to .235.
There’s a bit more to it.
When Robinson struck out in the second inning, veteran Freddy Garcia fooled him with a breaking pitch. Robinson wasn’t fooled again all day.
In the fourth inning he lined a ball toward right field that first baseman Mark Texeira got as it went by, and Texeira shook his head after making the play.
In the sixth inning, Robinson blistered another line drive, this one right at second baseman Robinson Cano.
“After the second one, I just kind of laughed,” Robinson said. “All you can do is square a pitch up. You can’t make it go where you want it.”
He had one more at-bat, in the ninth inning against New York closer Rafael Soriano — and lined a ball up the middle that Soriano caught at his belt.
Short hops
First baseman Mike Carp left the team after Saturday’s game to be with his girlfriend for the birth of their first child, a daughter. No word on when he’ll rejoin Seattle on this trip. … Frequent flyers: The Mariners took a train from New York to Baltimore after Sunday’s games, giving them 420 miles via rail this season. By air? Counting their trip to Japan, the Mariners by the end of this trip will have flown in excess of 46,000 miles in 2012. Most teams fly fewer than 40,000 all year. … Ichiro Suzuki has hit safely in each of the 12 games he’s played as a Yankee. On Sunday his hit was a “double,” a pop fly to center field that Michael Saunders lost in the sun until it hit him in the leg.
Larry LaRue, The News Tribune
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