Opponent: Oakland A’s
When: 12:35 p.m.
Where: Network Associates Coliseum, Oakland, Calif.
TV: None
Radio: KIRO (710 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle left-hander John Halama (6-4, 4.71) vs. Oakland right-hander Cory Lidle (1-4, 4.21)
Ichiro talks about adrenaline: When the Mariners came from behind to win their 53 game of the year with a ninth-inning rally Tuesday, the man who began that comeback was Ichiro Suzuki.
On Wednesday, Ichiro was asked whether that situation – down by a run in the ninth inning, matched against closer Jason Isringhausen – was the type that produced a little extra adrenaline.
Ichiro seemed genuinely surprised by the question.
“I was the leadoff hitter that inning,” he said. “It would have been different if I’d come up with runners in scoring position. That would have produced the adrenaline. In my situation, I just had to do my job.”
It is the kind of thinking that may separate Ichiro, a nine-year veteran of Japanese baseball, from most major league rookies. He has learned to deal with adrenaline surges, learned to make them work for him – and learned to play well without it.
“My first at-bat of the season here was exciting, but I didn’t feel much more adrenaline than usual,” Ichiro said. “I’ve been in those situations before. Early in my career, my first year, I wouldn’t have handled things the same way.
“In April of ‘94, when I began playing every day, I erased doubts about whether I could play. I learned to control my adrenaline.”
And how exactly does someone handle an adrenaline rush? According to Ichiro, you don’t fight it, you use it.
“You can’t control it, so you go with it, flow with it like water in a stream,” Ichiro said. “With experience, you can do that.”
In game-on-the-line situations, Ichiro was asked, who has the edge – a pitcher or the hitter? He thought about it. “That adrenaline can be positive or negative,” he said. “If you’re not confident, the adrenaline can be negative, and there’s no edge in that.”
And was Ichiro confident Tuesday night, leading off the ninth inning?
Ichiro didn’t say. He just smiled.
McLemore admits to baserunning blunder: In that ninth inning rally to win Tuesday, Edgar Martinez hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield to score Suzuki from third base, but Mark McLemore, perched on second base, didn’t advance to third. No one was more surprised by that than McLemore.
“It was like an out of body experience,” he said. “I’m on second base watching them field and throw that ball, and I’m not moving. It was a total brain cramp. Everybody in the ballpark knew I had to be on third base after that play, including me.”
McLemore wound up scoring the winning run, anyway.
Around the horn: By hitting .349 over his last 22 starts, third baseman David Bell pulled his average to .251 heading into the game Wednesday. “He’s made a couple of changes and they’ve worked for him,” manager Lou Piniella said. “He’s been great defensively and he’s starting to come up with some big hits for us.” At the All-Star break last year, Bell was batting .233 with six home runs and 31 RBI. Bell already has six home runs and 33 RBI this season. … So much for resting Suzuki against left-handed pitcher Mark Mulder. Piniella had suggested the left-handed hitting Suzuki take a day off, but Suzuki talked him out of move. … It’s the time of year when rumors begin in baseball, and a variety of sources – all media, none from the teams themselves – insist hitters like Magglio Ordonez, Jermaine Dye, Jason Giambi and others are now on the market. According to Mariners executives, that’s not the case. “We’ve talked to teams, but nothing is close,” one executive said. “That doesn’t mean something couldn’t happen tomorrow, but some of the names who are supposed to be available just aren’t.”
Larry LaRue
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