Ryan Franklin walked through the Mariners’ dugout after a workout Sunday morning and prepared himself for a high-risk journey into the team’s clubhouse. He wrapped a T-shirt around his nose and mouth.
“Goin’ back inside,” Franklin said. “Gotta put it on.”
The flu bug continues to jump from Mariner to Mariner, and sometimes back again. It seemed no less severe Sunday than it was two weeks ago when the first person on the team got sick.
Utility player Greg Dobbs stayed away from the ballpark a second straight day and trainers sent pitcher Gil Meche home.
Asked who was sick Sunday, manager Mike Hargrove would have done better to name who wasn’t.
“Let’s see, there’s Meche, Dobbs, Guardado, Putz, me, Hassey …” Hargrove said.
Bret Boone is one of the few who hasn’t gotten the flu, and he’s knocking on every piece of wood he can find.
It’s common for illness to sweep a baseball team, which shares close quarters in the clubhouse and on airplanes nearly every day for six months. This illness, however, has lasted longer than Hargrove can remember.
“Just when you think you get by it, it crops up in a different way,” he said. “You go from the flu-like chills, shakes and fever, and now it’s the puking and other kind of stuff. Hopefully we’ll get through it.
“There are other teams battling it, too, but I don’t know that any team’s worse than we are. It certainly has taken its toll.”
Completing Moyer’s work: Jamie Moyer wanted to pitch the ninth inning Sunday and record his first complete game since April 11, 2004.
He easily could have, with just 95 pitches through eight innings, but closer Eddie Guardado badly needed the work. Guardado hadn’t pitched since last Wednesday and, despite an eight-run Mariners lead, he worked the ninth inning.
“He’s got to get on a roll,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “If we’re going to be successful in this division, we’re going to play a lot of close games and we’ll need our late-inning guys to be sharp. They’ve got to come in throwing strikes.”
Guardado did just that Sunday, throwing four pitches to get three outs. It was his second straight impressive outing, following his save Wednesday against the A’s.
“I think that was the best I’ve ever seen Eddie throw with us,” Price said.
The Mariners are both elated and thankful to say that after Guardado dealt with shoulder issues in the offseason and a strained hamstring during spring training.
“We don’t even talk about the hamstring. It doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods, but it hasn’t been an issue,” Price said. “And the arm health is paramount in our ability to have him as our closer.”
Troubles in Tacoma: Right-hander Jorge Campillo became the third Tacoma Rainiers pitcher in the past eight games to leave early because of an injury.
Campillo was hit on his right forearm by a line drive in the third inning of Saturday night’s game at Colorado Springs. He finished the inning but came out of the game when his arm stiffened up.
Last week, right-hander Rich Dorman also was hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and right-hander Cha Seung Baek suffered a strained right elbow and was placed on the disabled list.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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