It seemed either time or a hot streak would determine Michael Saunders’ fate with the Mariners, and after Friday’s game it happened. The Mariners optioned Saunders and his .168 batting average to Class AAA Tacoma and replaced him with outfielder Greg Halman.
“It’s the right time to do this,”
manager Eric Wedge said of the 24-year-old Saunders. “He’s still a young player. He’s had enough experience up here to understand just what it’s all about and ultimately what he needs to do to be successful. That’s why we sent him out.”
Saunders’ playing time diminished significantly last month when center fielder Franklin Gutierrez returned from the disabled list. But when he did get chances to play, especially in recent games, Saunders struggled as much mentally with his hitting approach as he did mechanically.
“We feel he needs to go down and play every day,” Wedge said. “There’s some things he needs to do mechanically with his swing, also with his mindset, to help him be the hitter he believes he can be and we believe he can be.
“Sporadically up here he was helping us on the basepaths and he was helping us defensively. He just wasn’t able to get over the hump offensively. It’s tough to do when you’re not playing every day.”
Interestingly, Wedge said Saunders doesn’t necessarily need to get hits at Tacoma, but rather develop a consistent approach that leads to success.
“It’s about him going down there and getting to the point where he can be a consistent big-league hitter and have success up here,” Wedge said. “The hits will come if he does that.”
Big break after bad break
Halman had played only five games with Tacoma since coming off the disabled list before the Mariners called him up to replace Saunders, and he admitted the move surprised him. He’d suffered a broken left hand after being hit by a pitch in Tacoma’s fourth game of the season.
Outfielder Mike Carp has been the Rainiers’ hottest hitter lately — he entered Friday batting .405 with four homers and 13 RBI in his previous 10 games. But the Mariners grabbed Halman because he gives them experience in center field on days when Franklin Gutierrez doesn’t play.
“We need to have a backup center fielder, a true center fielder, so when Guti’s not out there we can have a guy out there who can run it down,” Wedge said. “We need a guy who can run it down in left field from time to time.”
Halman, who homered in his first at-bat after coming off the DL, said he was surprised to be called up.
“Of course I was surprised, but I was ready to go right away because this is where I want to be and where I want to play at,” he said. “I haven’t played a lot, so not having my real rhythm yet, maybe that’s going to come into a play a little bit. I’m not looking at that. I’m just looking to have good at-bats, play hard, play good defense, run the bases and all of that stuff.”
No TV today
Today’s Mariners-Rays game won’t be televised because, with a 1:10 p.m. start, it falls within the FOX network’s exclusive broadcast window.
Why not play a night game? Next door, at Qwest Field, U2 is playing a concert tonight and the Mariners didn’t want to create a conflict.
Of note
All four Mariners home runs Thursday night were by left-handed hitters, the fifth time that has happened in franchise history. The last time was Aug. 29, 2006 by Raul Ibanez, Ichiro Suzuki and Chris Snelling (who homered twice) against the Angels. … Despite Halman being called up, Wedge said he still hoped to get playing time for outfielder Mike Wilson against left-handed starters. … Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready played a raspy rendition of the National Anthem before Friday night’s game.
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