A daily look at the Mariners in spring training.
Tuesday in camp
Eddie Guardado pitched in his first game Tuesday since March 7, and he went to the mound with strict instructions from the medical staff. Don’t chase any bunts, bouncers or popups, and by all means don’t sprint off the mound to cover a base.
Then, the second hitter he faced in a minor league game hit a pop foul out of play, and Guardado took four hard strides off the mound before he remembered.
“I forgot,” he said. “But the good thing is, I didn’t feel anything.”
To the Mariners, that’s a great thing.
Guardado’s strained hamstring has resulted in a final-week push to get ready for the season opener next week. He pitched three simulated games with no problems, but was scratched Sunday from his scheduled return to exhibition play when the medical staff feared the hamstring wouldn’t hold up if he sprinted off the mound to make a play.
Besides the foul ball that got Guardado hopping off the mound Tuesday, he held his ground and completed a 25-pitch inning against Class A hitters. In a controlled situation in which the pitch count, not outs, was important, Guardado struck out four and got a ground-ball out.
“I threw strikes, kept the ball down and everything was working,” he said. “The ball was coming out of my hand today better than it has all year.”
Today, Guardado will perform agility drills and work on covering first base. If he completes that without problem, he will pitch in another minor league game Thursday with no restrictions.
“And if everything goes good then, they’re talking about me going back-to-back games,” he said.
That would put him in line to pitch Friday night’s exhibition against the Chicago Cubs in Las Vegas.
Tuesday’s game Today in camp
The game: Mariners vs. Royals, 12:05 p.m. (PST) at Peoria
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Of note: Left-hander Jamie Moyer will make his final exhibition start before he pitches for the Mariners on opening day. Right-hander Shigetoshi Hasegawa also will pitch, along with George Sherrill and Matt Thornton, two left-handers who are trying to win relief roles.
Weather
On team’s next-to-last day in Arizona, the sun will shine and the temperature will reach the mid 70s.
They said it
“There was a scorer in Cleveland who was the head coach at Kent State University. He and I had a couple of legendary arguments over some scoring decisions, to the point where I called him a (expletive). I’d get so mad at him I couldn’t breathe.
“He ended up coaching my kid.”
Ms manager Mike Hargrove
They did it
Like kids watching their favorite toys being taken away, the Mariners said good-bye until next week to some of their most prized possessions: their automobiles. In the first sign that spring training is nearly over, the players’ vehicles – some exotic, some four-wheel-drive behemoths, all sparkling – were loaded on trailers Tuesday morning for the trip to Seattle.
Kirby Arnold, Herald writer
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