Opponent: Baltimore Orioles
When: 1:35 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: Fox Sports Net (cable)
Radio: KIRO (710 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle left-hander Jamie Moyer (16-5, 3.48 earned run average) vs. right-hander Josh Towers (8-9, 4.20)
Dream day: Ramon Vazquez has the baseball. He’s got the video tape. And he’s saving the jersey, freshly decorated with the signatures of his teammates.
If there was ever a better moment for Vazquez than his major league debut on Friday, he can’t remember it. The 25-year-old pulled a pinch-hit single down the right-field line in the eighth inning in his first big-league at-bat.
And then it got better.
“I got up to bat, I got a base hit, I got to third and talked to Cal Ripken Jr.,” Vazquez said. “He came over and said congratulations, and he asked me if I was scared.
“It was the greatest day of my life.”
At the Vazquez home in Puerto Rico, his mom, dad and four sisters watched the game on television.
“They saw the hit and they called me after the game,” he said. “They were crying.”
On Saturday, Vazquez had his new teammates sign the game jersey from Friday.
Almost ready: Shortstop Carlos Guillen, who sprained his left ankle last Tuesday, says he will be ready to play today but probably won’t.
“It feels much better,” Guillen said Saturday afternoon. “I’ll be ready Sunday or Monday.”
Guillen fielded ground balls, ran agility drills and took batting practice before the game Saturday, four days after he stepped on the foot of Tampa Bay first baseman Steve Cox as he crossed the bag. The Mariners, and Guillen, initially feared he would miss 10 days.
He’ll be back much sooner, but not today, trainer Rick Griffin said.
“He could play if he had to,” Griffin said. “But we’re not hitting (taking batting practice) before the game, so it would be pretty hard for him to come out here cold.”
The other injured Mariner, outfielder Al Martin, is several days from returning from a strained left elbow. Martin, injured when he crashed into the left-field wall on Wednesday, hasn’t thrown a baseball since then and won’t for two or three days, Griffin said.
Family time: Cal Ripken Jr. isn’t alone in his final tour of the big leagues. Ripken’s family is in Seattle this weekend, and he spent several minutes Saturday afternoon playing baseball in the outfield with his 11-year-old daughter Rachel and 8-year-old son Ryan.
After batting practice, Ripken slowly worked his way from the left-field corner toward the Orioles dugout, signing autographs for fans.
Ripken will be honored before today’s game, his last in Seattle before he retires after his 20th major league season.
Segui ailing: Orioles first baseman David Segui wasn’t in the lineup Saturday after aggravating a knee injury on Friday. Segui, a former Mariner, hobbled to first base after a first-inning fly out and a fourth-inning ground out, then was pulled from the game in the sixth.
Celebrity sighting: That wasn’t a minor-league callup in the Mariners’ clubhouse Friday night. The long-haired guy wearing a Mariners jersey was rock musician Jerry Cantrell.
Cantrell, now in a solo career after rising to prominence with the group Alice in Chains, lives in the same Seattle neighborhood as Mariners catcher Tom Lampkin. He has visited Safeco Field several times this season as Lampkin’s guest, including one appearance to sing the National Anthem.
Kirby Arnold
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
