Opponent: Kansas City Royals
When: Game 1 at 1:05 p.m., Game 2 starting 30 minutes after the end of the first game.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: none
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Pitchers: Game 1 – Seattle right-hander Clint Nageotte (1-6, 6.95 earned run average) vs. left-hander Darrel May (9-14, 5.52). Game 2 – Left-hander Bobby Madritsch (3-1, 2.84) vs. right-hander Jimmy Serrano (0-1, 5.66).
Looking for a comfort zone
When Clint Nageotte starts for the Mariners today in the first game of their double-header, there’s one thing pitching coach Bryan Price wants to see from his rookie right-hander above anything else.
“I want him to pitch comfortable,” Price said. “I want to see a guy up here who’s expecting to get people out.”
Nageotte has struggled since the Mariners called him up from Class AAA Tacoma early this season. He is 1-6 with a 6.95 ERA in 11 appearances, four of them starts, and has five straight losses since he won his first start June 7 against the Astros.
Nageotte has battled confidence as much as anything else, and there’s a reason. Unlike other pitchers the Mariners have called up in recent years, Nageotte didn’t come to the Mariners as an unqualified success at Tacoma. He was 5-6 with a 4.89 ERA with the Rainiers.
“You always want the guys pitching well before they come up here,” Price said. “That was the case with Bobby Madritsch, George Sherrill and Scott Atchison. They were all better than the league they were pitching in.”
Nageotte and another called up from Tacoma, left-hander Matt Thornton, weren’t overwhelming the Pacific Coast League when the Mariners decided to keep them, among others, in Seattle and evaluate the organization’s top minor leaguers.
“In their defense, they didn’t have the advantage of coming up here saying, ‘I’m locked in and I’m better than the league here,’ “Price said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re taking a kid from. If you take him from Double-A and he’s on top of the world there, at least you think you’ve got a guy who’s confident. He’s going to come up to a better defensive club, a better offensive club and he’ll be playing in a big-league ballpark.
“When you’re struggling where you are, and then you get called up to a higher level, you wonder. But that was our situation.”
Nageotte gets opener: The Mariners decided to use Nageotte in the first game today because their bullpen will be in better shape to take over the game if he gets into trouble early. Bobby Madritsch, who will start the second game, has made four straight starts and is more capable of pitching deeper into the game.
“It’s easier to evaluate our needs for the second game after the first game,” manager Bob Melvin said.
The Mariners are prepared to make a roster move between games, if necessary, and bring up a pitcher from Tacoma if the bullpen is taxed in the first game.
The Moyer question: Not only is Jamie Moyer winless since June 18, the first-inning grand slam he allowed Thursday was the 35th home run he has given up this season, tying the team record.
In a slump like this, it’s easy to wonder if the 41-year-old Moyer has anything left. Melvin isn’t worried.
“It’s not like the velocity is down,” Melvin said. “He just hasn’t pitched as well. I don’t see anything glaring that says, ‘Hey, he’s lost it.’ “
M’s claim pitcher: The Mariners claimed right-handed pitcher Brett Evert off waivers from the Atlanta Braves and optioned him to Tacoma.
Evert, a 23-year-old native of Salem, Ore., went 6-4 with a 4.81 ERA for Class AA Greenville and Class AAA Richmond. Baseball America twice listed him among the Braves’ top four prospects.
Evert graduated from North Salem High school in 1999 and was the all-region pitcher of the year as a junior and senior.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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