For three innings tonight, Ian Snell seemed like the second coming of Miguel Batista. He picked at the strike zone, worked deliberately and looked like a guy who wouldn’t make it into the fourth, and as a result fell into a 4-0 hole against the L.A. Angels.
Then Snell turned efficient and retired eight straight hitters to save everything but a victory for the Mariners. Come to think of it, Batista would do that, too.
The Angels beat the Mariners 7-1 on one of those topsy-turvy outings that has marked Snell’s existence with the M’s. Afterward, when told that manager Don Wakamatsu spoke of his lacking tempo early in the game, Snell seemed peeved.
“I have no comment on what he says,” Snell said. “He can say whatever he wants because he’s the manager, but I am going to leave it at that. I have pretty much nothing else to say about my tempo. Whatever. I am working on it, trying my best. That’s all I can do. I am not Superman.”
Not in this game.
Having gotten superb starts from Jason Vargas, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez to win three straight games, the Mariners needed another from Snell not only to keep the streak going, but to save a bullpen that’ll be tested this weekend.
Doug Fister has a bum shoulder and has been scratched from Saturday’s start, meaning emergency starter Ryan Rowland-Smith almost certainly will need relief help. Wakamatsu said Rowland-Smith would throw between 75-90 pitches, although he hasn’t pitched more than an inning in his three relief appearances since being pulled from the rotation in mid-May.
Wakamatsu used Sean White for 2/3 inning, Chad Cordero for an inning and Garrett Olson for two. Only Olson was unscathed, allowing one hit against the seven batters he faced.
Besides Ichiro Suzuki’s bloop single to center field to score the Mariners’ only run in the fifth inning, Cordero provided the feel-good moment of the game for the M’s.
When Wakamatsu handed him the ball in the seventh, it was his first major league appearance since April 29, 2008, when he pitched for the Washington Nationals against the Atlanta Braves. A shoulder injury that required labrum surgery kept Cordero off a big-league mound more than two years.
“I was more nervous tonight than I was my rookie year,” Cordero said.
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