Why did manager John McLaren lift Felix Hernandez after only 97 pitches? If Mike Morse is here to platoon in left field with Brad Wilkerson, then why was Morse still on the bench as the left-handed-hitting Wilkerson batted with a runner on base and left-hander Eddie Guardado in the seventh inning?
And what on earth was Richie Sexson thinking when he turned ball four into strike three by flailing at a pitch so low and outside that even Vlad Guerrero wouldn’t swing at it?
When a team loses like the Mariners did Tuesday, blowing a one-run lead when Josh Hamilton homered off closer J.J. Putz in the ninth for a 5-4 Rangers victory, there will be questions.
Has manager John McLaren already shown an inability to run a game? He gets a pass from me on this one, and here’s why:
Hernandez gave up only five hits and a run in seven innings and, yes, his pitch count was nothing that should have prevented him from going out for another inning. Except, he’d wiggled his way out of serious trouble each of the three previous innings, when the Rangers had four of their five hits, plus two walks from Hernandez. With a string of left-handed hitters coming to bat in the eighth, it seemed like the perfect time for McLaren to use his new left-handed relief specialist, Eric O’Flaherty.
Working a second straight game, O’Flaherty was more disappointing this time than the first. He gave up three hits — all to left-handed hitters, although Hamilton’s leadoff single in the eighth was a high chop off the plate. The other two were bullets, doubles into the right field corner by Hank Blalock and David Murphy. That’s cause for concern. O’Flaherty has allowed four hits and three runs in two innings so far, and lelt-handed hitters have gotten all the hits.
As for letting Wilkerson hit against Guardado, I have no problem even though Wilkerson struck out. He’d crushed a ball to deep center field his previous at-bat, robbed by Hamilton’s running over-the-shoulder catch at the wall. And, besides, Wilkerson has hit left-handers better in his career than righties (which still makes me wonder about this platoon thing. How about platooning Morse with left fielder Raul Ibanez, whose career average is 32 points lower against lefties?).
Then there’s Sexson. The Mariners are going to ride this e-ticket as long as they can stomach it, and right now they’re batting him in the cleanup spot. It’s way, way too early to say this is the Bad Richie of last year, and his at-bat in the fifth inning, when he turned a two-strike count into a nice stay-within-himself single, was a good sign.
In the eighth, Sexson batted with the bases loaded after a Jose Lopez sacrifice bunt and intentional walk to Raul Ibanez (get used to that if Sexson remains in the cleanup spot). After falling behind, Sexson worked Rangers reliever Joaquin Benoit into a full count. Turns out, Benoit was working him. Benoit threw ball two high, ball three higher and then what should have been ball four, a low/outside fastball. Sexson lunged at it and struck out. He did exactly what McLaren and the hitting coaches had preached against throughout spring training — making his mind up before the pitcher released the ball that he was going to swing at it. Savvy veteran hitters don’t do that.
That at-bat represented the brunt of what was wrong with the Mariners in this game and what easily could be their undoing. They left 15 runners on base, and they were fortunate with the ones who did score because the Rangers committed two errors and a wild pitch in the eighth when the M’s scored three times to take the lead.
Rangers mistakes gave the Mariners opportunities to win both of their first two games. They’re 1-1 entering the series finale and, after the Rangers leave town, chances are good that most other teams won’t gift the Mariners so many scoring opportunities.
If there’s hope, it’s that the hitting typically warms up when the weather does.
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