Opponent: Oakland A’s
When: 7:05 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: Fox Sports Net
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Gil Meche (11-8, 4.48 earned run average ) vs. left-hander Barry Zito (16-9, 3.89).
Ichiro out
Mariners trainer Rick Griffin rushed onto the field Monday night after Ichiro Suzuki had been hit by a pickoff throw, then started laughing.
“I have two injuries now,” Suzuki told Griffin, wincing from the pain in his left shoulder. “I am human.”
Despite the pain, Suzuki’s shoulder didn’t hurt him. It was the bruised right quad he suffered earlier in Monday’s game that was the biggest pain, and it cost him a start Tuesday.
For only the second time this season, Suzuki wasn’t in the starting lineup. Willie Bloomquist started in center and led off.
“The trainer told the manager what the situation was and the manager made the decision,” said Suzuki, who didn’t try to talk manager Mike Hargrove into letting him start. “It’s not my job to make those decisions.”
He also didn’t start Aug. 18 at Los Angeles, ending a streak of 209 straight starts.
Suzuki banged up his leg in the first inning Monday when he tumbled over right fielder Chris Snelling to make a catch. Nobody quite knows what part of Snelling hit Suzuki’s thigh.
“Ichiro thought he hit Chris’ knee and Chris said it might have been his back,” Griffin said.
The bottom line is that Suzuki’s ailments aren’t considered serious and Snelling, who hasn’t played a season without an injury since he was a first-year pro, is unscathed.
“Maybe Chris’ luck has turned,” Griffin said.
Suzuki hurt his left shoulder in the 10th inning when A’s pitcher Kiko Calero’s pickoff attempt at first base hit him. The ball bounced out of play and Suzuki, awarded second base, dragged his arm as he stumbled to the bag, obviously in pain.
That’s when Griffin and manager Mike Hargrove went to his aid and came away amused when Suzuki pronounced himself human. Later in the inning, he scored the game-winning run on Willie Bloomquist’s single.
“It hit him on a bony part of the shoulder and his arm went numb a little,” Griffin said.
Streak? What streak? Hargrove said he doesn’t pay much attention to losing streaks, although the 15-game skid against the A’s did become an irritant before the Mariners finally beat them Monday.
“When a streak goes that far, it goes from stupid to ridiculous,” he said. “But it’s just a matter of time before it gets broken. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it.
“Now, the 11-game losing streak, I paid a lot of attention to that.”
The Mariners lost every game on an 11-game road trip in August, taking them out of contention in the AL West.
Of note: Catcher Kenji Johjima didn’t start Tuesday because of a sore back. The Mariners believe he was hurt blocking a pitch on Monday. Rene Rivera started Tuesday. … Pitcher Mark Lowe, whose sore right elbow has made little progress this month, had a magnetic resonance imaging exam Tuesday. The Mariners expected to learn the results of it today. … When Greg Dobbs doubled as a pinch hitter Monday, it was his third hit in as many pinch-hit appearances. He’s the first Mariner to do that since Edgar Martinez in 2004. Henry Cotto holds the franchise record of five straight in 1991, and Dan Wilson had four straight from 2001 to 2004.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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