SEATTLE ()—Of all the batters for Felix Hernandez(notes) to make a mistake
against, it had to be Adrian Beltre(notes).

It was bad enough that Beltre’s two-run homer was his 27th of the season and
the deciding blow in the Texas Rangers’ 3-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on
Sunday.

What makes it worse is all the smack talk Hernandez will have to hear from
his good friend and former teammate.

“(It’s) always, always going to be like that,” Hernandez said of the trash
he talks with his friend. “He got me with his bat today and we’ll get another
one in Texas.”

Hernandez and Beltre became part of the attraction Sunday when Hernandez
missed with a two-strike, two-out fastball in the fourth inning and Beltre lined
a two-run shot into the bullpen in left field. By the time Beltre rounded third,
he was already jabbering with Hernandez as the two friends traded barbs.

“It was nice because he’s always talking smack to me. We talk smack back
and forth and he got my number,” Beltre said. “I told him all I wanted to do
was take him deep and I did it so I was yping back to him.”

While the Hernandez-Beltre battle became a little side story to Sunday’s
loss, the bigger concern is Seattle’s continuing issues with striking out. Texas
starter Matt Harrison(notes) (13-9) struck out a career-high nine and the Mariners
finished with 14 strikeouts on the day.

Seattle batters have struck out at least nine times in nine of the past 10
games and over those 10 games, Seattle has struck out 120 times.

The Mariners currently have 1,201 strikeouts for the season, setting a new
team record. It’s also the 14th most in American League history and if the
problem doesn’t change over the final 10 games, the Mariners could be climbing
much higher on the all-time list.

“We’re facing playoff teams right now, some tough teams, playing their ‘A’
game every time out. Not to say we’re not, but they have their best guys going
and they are doing everything they can to win so they are going to be tough,”
Seattle’s Mike Carp(notes) said. “It’s good for us—not to struggle but to remember
it going into next year. We’ll face these guys and not let them beat us like
that.”

In his final home start of the season, Hernandez (14-13) wasn’t his
sharpest. The reigning AL Cy Young winner gave up nine hits and struck out five,
but lost his second straight decision.

He also lost for the third time to Texas with one more start against the
Rangers coming next weekend.

“They have a pretty good lineup and you’ve got to respect that. You have to
make good pitches,” Hernandez said. “You don’t get a break in any spot from
first to ninth. They can hit—hit homers—so you have to make good pitches.”

Only once did Seattle advance a runner to third base against Harrison and
that came in the seventh inning. Harrison left with two outs after Ichiro
Suzuki’s(notes) infield hit glanced off Harrison’s glove and Elvis Andrus(notes) couldn’t get
to it in time. Suzuki’s 173rd hit of the season loaded the bases for Luis
Gonzalez, who had doubled off Harrison in his previous at bat.

Instead of risking it, Rangers manager Ron Washington went to Koji Uehara(notes).
The move worked as Uehara struck out Rodriguez to end Seattle’s best scoring
chance.

Carp nearly ended the shutout in the eighth, but Josh Hamilton(notes) robbed him of
a homer with a leing catch at the wall in left to end the inning. Neftali
Feliz(notes) then picked up his 28th save in 34 chances, pitching the ninth and adding
a couple of more strikeouts to the ledger.

“Going up against that guy you know it’s always tough,” Harrison said of
Hernandez. “You just try and keep the game close and make your pitches and try
and stay in the game as long as possible.”

It was an important victory for Texas, remaining 4 1/2 games ahead of the Los
Angeles Angels in the AL West after the Angels beat Baltimore earlier Sunday.

Notes: Texas is 12-4 vs. Seattle this season with three games left in Texas
next weekend. … Seattle 3B Chone Figgins(notes) will not play again this season with
a hip flexor injury, manager Eric Wedge said. … Seattle will make a detour to
Cleveland for a makeup game on Monday. The game was one of two makeups after the
Indians and Mariners were rained out on May 14 and 15. Seattle then opens a
three-game series in Minnesota on Tuesday. … LHP Charlie Furbush(notes) will start
for Seattle against the Indians. He is just 2-6 in eight starts since coming
over in late July in a trade with Detroit. … Sunday was the first time since
July 31 most of a Mariners game has been played with the Safeco Field roof
closed. It was closed in the top of the first inning on Sunday after closing in
the eighth inning of Saturday’s game.

The Seattle Mariners lost their 62nd game of the season Sunday, although this one had a unique feel – there were far more introductions and farewells.

After they’d watched the team lose to Tampa Bay, 8-1, manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff started forgetting about July and preparing for August.

They’ve looked at a lot of players in 2011. And they’ll look at a lot more.

They started Sunday.

Two new Mariners arrived – outfielder Casper Wells and left-handed pitcher Charlie Furbush – new faces in from Detroit following the trade of pitchers Doug Fister and David Pauley.

No sooner were those men in uniform than another Mariners pitcher, Erik Bedard, took his off – he and Tacoma reliever Josh Fields were sent to Boston in a three-team exchange for two young outfielders having productive minor league seasons.

“I hope our fans understand, we’ve given up two of our starting pitchers but gotten back six pieces in the past two days,” general manager Jack Zduriencik said.

Those trades, far more than their 21st loss in the past 23 games, were on the minds of the team and probably its fans.

Wells and Furbush not only were in uniform Sunday, they each played. The other pieces of that Tigers trade: Triple-A third baseman Francisco Martinez and a high draft pick to be named this month.

For Bedard and Fields, the Mariners landed Triple-A outfielder Trayvon Robinson from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and Double-A outfielder Chih-Hsien Chiang from Detroit.

That’s yet more youth for Wedge, who has seen eight Mariners make their big-league debut this season. Patient as he may be with young players, he has none for losing – or excuses for doing so.

When someone asked if that 8-1 loss to the Rays might have been something of a trade-deadline distraction, Wedge bristled.

“A letdown? You’ve got to be a man about it, be a professional about it,” Wedge said. “Without what hpened in the last month, we might have been in a different position today.”

He was alluding, of course, to that 17-game losing streak. The one that took the Mariners from American League West contenders to fourth place in just three weeks.

“One thing we will not do here is spin our wheels,” Wedge said. “We’re looking to be a championship club in the not too distant future, and we’re making moves in that direction.”

The message re-sent after this game: Get with the program, or get out of the way.

Would the Mariners rather have traded, say, Chone Figgins and Jack Wilson over the weekend? Yes, but those asking weren’t offering anything that would help Seattle now or down the line.

The players Zduriencik landed for Bedard and Fields could help down the line.

Check the numbers:

Robinson, 23, is a switch-hitter batting .293 with 26 home runs and 71 RBI in 100 games.

Chiang, 23, is batting .338 with 36 doubles, 18 home runs and 76 RBI in 87 games.

What Zduriencik did was improve the depth of the high minor league system and give Wedge and his staff options – this year and beyond.

And, in the case of Bedard, he did it for a man who was about to hit the heart of an incentive-laden contract that could add $6.35 million to his base $1 million deal.

“We could have had two good months of Erik Bedard, or we could get talent we thought would be with us for years,” Zduriencik said. “It came down to a couple of minutes before the deadline, then we said yes to the deal.”

The Mariners sent four scouts to see Chiang, almost as many had seen Robinson this season.

What Zduriencik gave up was a left-hander laid low by 31/2 years of injuries in Seattle, where Bedard made 46 starts and went 15-14 with a 3.31 earned-run average.

Fields, 25, was the Mariners’ first-round draft pick in 2008, but had never pitched in the big leagues.

At the moment, only Wells and Furbush will join Seattle’s 25-man roster. The other acquisitions?

“The focus every day is on winning, that’s got to be a given,” Wedge said. “I don’t care how damned young we are. Players we counted on haven’t performed, but we’ve got two months left, and we’re going to use it to move forward.”

There was little forward movement on the field Sunday, and not much for a crowd of 20,382 to celebrate.

Against Jeremy Hellickson, the Mariners were hitless until Figgins singled in the sixth inning, and shut out until Wells pushed a run home with a fielder’s choice in the seventh.

Jason Vargas, by his own acknowledgement, wasn’t able to make the big pitch when he needed to and allowed six runs. Behind him, the Mariners made three errors.

And the first man Furbush faced, Sean Rodriguez, homered over the Tampa Bay bullpen.

Not a scrbook day for the home team, but a game in which four players who weren’t with the team a week ago – Josh Lueke, Dan Cortes, Wells and Furbush – played.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners

DID YOU KNOW?

Trayvon Robinson was drafted by the Dodgers in the 10th round in 2005 out of Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High, which produced baseball players Darryl Strawberry, Ellis Valentine and the late Chris Brown, as well as Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Brandon Mebane.

CBSSports.com wire reports
May 15, 2011

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians can only hope the magic they’ve regained at Progressive Field hasn’t been washed away.

For the second straight day, the Indians’ game against the Seattle Mariners on Sunday was postponed by rain. The consecutive rainouts came on the heels of perhs the team’s biggest moment of an already surprising season Friday night, when Travis Hafner’s two-run homer in the ninth inning cped a three-run rally and gave the Indians a 5-4 win.

The comeback, which took place in front of 33,774 fans, the second-largest crowd of the season, looked to be a perfect opportunity for the Indians to build more momentum on a start that’s already featured several memorable moments.

“We really wanted to use all that energy we got from that walk-off homer,” manager Manny Acta said. “It’s too bad. It seems like ages ago since Travis hit that home run.”

The Indians are 24-13, their best start since opening the 2001 season at 26-11. Cleveland plays two-game series at Kansas City and Chicago this week before returning home Friday to face Cincinnati. The Indians, who had a 14-game home winning streak snped by the Rays on Wednesday, are 15-4 at Progressive Field.

Unlike Saturday’s game, which was halted in the bottom of the first inning, Sunday’s contest never began. The original 1:05 p.m. start time was delayed while the grounds crew prepared the field, which had been hit by heavy rains since Saturday morning.

The postponement was announced at 3:15 p.m. No makeup dates have been decided. The Mariners return to Cleveland for a three-game series Aug. 22-24. Both teams are off Aug. 25 and Sept. 19.

Although steady rain was still falling, the umpires and grounds crew hoped to start the game at 1:50 p.m. Josh Tomlin, Cleveland’s scheduled starter, was on the mound throwing his warmup pitches and the Indians’ position players had taken the field when the rain picked up again, along with a swirling wind.

Acta and Mariners manager Eric Wedge spoke with the umpires before crew chief John Hirschbeck called for the tarp to be put back on the field.

“It was a tough decision,” Acta said. “The weather was so unpredictable. I don’t think anyone did anything wrong. Once we were ready to start, the rain got a little harder. That wasn’t the conditions to start a game. Basically the rain was going to be here all day.”

The weather problems brought back memories of the four-game series in Cleveland between the teams that was snowed out to begin the 2007 season. The Mariners had to return to Cleveland three different times for makeup games while the final game was played in Seattle in September with the Indians as the home team.

For Eric Wedge, who managed the Indians from 2003-09, dealing with the conditions in Cleveland is nothing new. Returning for the first time since being fired after the 2009 season as Seattle’s manager, Wedge’s homecoming consisted of a walk-off loss and two rainouts.

“I’ve seen a little bit of everything,” he said. “It’s tough here with the weather. Its always been tough.”

Center fielder Grady Sizemore, who hasn’t played since bruising his right knee sliding into second base on Tuesday, is still listed as day to day. The Indians want to be extra careful with the three-time All-Star, who had season-ending knee surgery on his left knee last June.

Notes

Sunday was the 30th anniversary of Len Barker‘s perfect game against Toronto that took place on May 15, 1981 at the old Cleveland Stadium. Barker threw out the first pitch before the rainout. … Acta said Tomlin will start Monday against the Royals. … RHP Mitch Talbot (elbow) will pitch in a minor-league rehab game Thursday for Triple-A Columbus. … The Mariners, who have lost six in a row, return home to begin a two-game series against Minnesota on Monday night. … RHP starter Michael Pineda had taken his warmup pitches in the bullpen Sunday, but will be able to start Monday.

CLEVELAND () – The Seattle Mariners’ game in Cleveland was postponed by rain Sunday, the second straight day a contest between the teams was called off because of inclement weather.

Unlike Saturday’s game, which was halted in the bottom of the first inning, Sunday’s contest never began. The original 1:05 p.m. start time was delayed while the grounds crew prepared the field, which had been hit by heavy rains since Saturday morning.

The postponement was announced at 3:15 p.m. No makeup dates have been announced.

The Mariners return to Cleveland for a three-game series Aug. 22-24. Both teams have an off day on Aug. 25.

PEORIA, Ariz.—There might be some hope after all for the power outage that’s left the Seattle Mariners floundering offensively going on several years.

The team with the worst-scoring offense in the major leagues in four decades last season has several big bats slowly working their way up the minor-league ranks. And they’re starting to unload at spring training after Class AA prospect Carlos Peguero hit a ninth-inning homer for the Mariners on Sunday, followed by Class A slugger Johermyn Chavez going deep late on Monday in a 6-6 tie with the San Diego Padres at Peoria Stadium.

At 6-feet-5, 247 pounds, corner outfielder Peguero, 24, from the Dominican Republic, is probably the closest of Seattle’s young longball threats to making the major leagues. But he knows that for him, outfielder Chavez, 22, or others like Class A first baseman Rich Poythress, 23, to wear a Mariners uniform full-time, they will have to round out their games to make them less one-dimensional.

“I have to work hard on defense and try to get better at everything,” said Peguero, a left-handed slugger signed at age 17 by the Mariners in 2005. “At defense, at my running. But defense is important to me. Because if you get better at defense, you can really help the team at all parts of the game.”

Peguero hit 54 home runs in Class AA and A the past two seasons and then, this spring, in his first big-league camp, he belted a now legendary long ball during live batting practice last week that might have been the longest in Mariners spring-training history. His home run on Sunday, with two out in the ninth to tie the game, was a no-doubter ripped over the right-field wall.

Then, on Monday, it was the 6-foot-3, 220-pound, right-handed-hitting Chavez, a native of Venezuela, cranking a go-ahead shot over the wall in left-center to give Seattle a short-lived ninth-inning lead. For a M’s squad lacking extra-base hits of any kind last year, seeing their young guys tee off like that brings a smile.

“You love to see a young man go up there ready to hit,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of Chavez, acquired from Toronto 14 months ago in the Brandon Morrow trade. “And obviously, he really got all over that ball. It wasn’t a dead pull. It was in the middle of the field and he drove it. In the late innings as well. You look at Peguero (Sunday) and Chavez (Monday) and you like to see that.”

Chavez has combined for 53 homers at Class A ball the past two years, including a franchise-best 32 last year to narrowly edge the 31 by Poythress, who is in minor-league camp this spring.

Both Chavez and Peguero still have plenty of room for offensive improvement. Peguero struck out 350 times the past two seasons combined, while Chavez whiffed on 268 occasions.

And then there’s their defense, with both players trying to avoid getting saddled with the all-bat, no-glove, designated-hitter label.

Peguero on Sunday charged a base hit to left field and threw out the would-be go-ahead run at the plate in the 10th inning. It was just last year that one of Seattle’s minor-league instructors, Andy Bottin, gave Peguero what he considers to be the most important advice he has ever received about defending.

Bottin told Peguero he had to anticipate the ball being hit toward him even before it is pitched.

“The runner was on second, so I was thinking, ‘OK, I have to be ready because the ball might come to me,’ “ he said. “And so, every time I got ready before the next pitch, I kept telling myself, ‘Get ready, the ball is coming to you. The ball is coming to you.’

“When I saw the hitter hit the ball I just tried to get into the best position to catch the ball and throw hard to home plate.”

That positioning is something Mariners outfield coach Mike Brumley has been working on with his young outfielders, who are so big they can often be somewhat out of control when charging in at full speed.

“Most outfielders have that bull-in-a-china-closet mentality,” Brumley said. “Even though with (Franklin) Gutierrez and Ichiro, it’s a little different, but most of the big, brawny guys are that way. So, they really have worked on attacking early, then breaking down and trying to get in a good spot to throw.”

Brumley said the most important thing is to get Peguero and others into a development phase where they find a defensive rhythm.

What most impressed Brumley on Sunday wasn’t Peguero’s tying home run or throw to nab the runner. It was that Peguero had hustled to back up third base earlier with a runner tagging from second on a fly ball to right field.

Peguero wasn’t always a home-run hitter.

He averaged just nine per season his first four years of professional baseball before clubbing 31 in 2009 for Class A High Desert. Just before that season, he’d worked with minor-league hitting instructors Jose Castro and Tommy Cruz on his batting stance, posture and pitch recognition.

Everything clicked and Peguero was able to leverage his muscular frame into the best position to send balls soaring into the stands. He followed up with 23 more long balls at Class AA Jackson last season and made it to the All-Star Futures Game, where he went 2 for 4.

“The most important thing was to be patient at home plate,” Peguero said. “Be patient, look for the ball and hit it somewhere — hard.”

He’s figured out the latter part. Now, the team hopes he, Chavez and others can work out the rest of their games so future power displays won’t be limited to spring training.

PEORIA, Ariz. — There might be some hope after all for the power outage that’s left the Seattle Mariners floundering offensively going on several years.

The team with the worst-scoring offense in the major leagues in four decades last season has several big bats slowly working their way up the minor-league ranks. And they’re starting to unload at spring training after Class AA prospect Carlos Peguero hit a ninth-inning homer for the Mariners on Sunday, followed by Class A slugger Johermyn Chavez going deep late on Monday in a 6-6 tie with the San Diego Padres at Peoria Stadium.

At 6-feet-5, 247 pounds, corner outfielder Peguero, 24, from the Dominican Republic, is probably the closest of Seattle’s young longball threats to making the major leagues. But he knows that for him, outfielder Chavez, 22, or others like Class A first baseman Rich Poythress, 23, to wear a Mariners uniform full-time, they will have to round out their games to make them less one-dimensional.

“I have to work hard on defense and try to get better at everything,” said Peguero, a left-handed slugger signed at age 17 by the Mariners in 2005. “At defense, at my running. But defense is important to me. Because if you get better at defense, you can really help the team at all parts of the game.”

Peguero hit 54 home runs in Class AA and A the past two seasons and then, this spring, in his first big-league camp, he belted a now legendary long ball during live batting practice last week that might have been the longest in Mariners spring-training history. His home run on Sunday, with two out in the ninth to tie the game, was a no-doubter ripped over the right-field wall.

Then, on Monday, it was the 6-foot-3, 220-pound, right-handed-hitting Chavez, a native of Venezuela, cranking a go-ahead shot over the wall in left-center to give Seattle a short-lived ninth-inning lead. For a Mariners squad lacking extra-base hits of any kind last season, seeing their young guys tee off like that brings a smile.

“You love to see a young man go up there ready to hit,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of Chavez, acquired from Toronto 14 months ago in the Brandon Morrow trade. “And obviously, he really got all over that ball. It wasn’t a dead pull. It was in the middle of the field and he drove it. In the late innings as well. You look at Peguero (Sunday) and Chavez (Monday) and you like to see that.”

Chavez has combined for 53 homers at two levels of Class A ball the past two seasons, including a franchise-best 32 last year to narrowly edge the 31 by Poythress, who is in minor-league camp this spring.

Both Chavez and Peguero still have plenty of room for offensive improvement. Peguero struck out 350 times the past two seasons combined, while Chavez whiffed on 268 occasions.

And then there’s their defense, with both players trying to avoid getting saddled with the all-bat, no-glove, designated-hitter label.

Peguero on Sunday charged a base hit to left field and threw out the would-be go-ahead run at the plate in the 10th inning. It was just last year that one of Seattle’s minor-league instructors, Andy Bottin, gave Peguero what he considers to be the most important advice he has ever received about defending.

Bottin told Peguero he had to anticipate the ball being hit toward him even before it is pitched.

“The runner was on second, so I was thinking, ‘OK, I have to be ready because the ball might come to me,’ ” he said. “And so, every time I got ready before the next pitch, I kept telling myself, ‘Get ready, the ball is coming to you. The ball is coming to you.’

“When I saw the hitter hit the ball I just tried to get into the best position to catch the ball and throw hard to home plate.”

That positioning is something Mariners outfield coach Mike Brumley has been working on with his young outfielders, who are so big they can often be somewhat out of control when charging in at full speed.

“Most outfielders have that bull-in-a-china-closet mentality,” Brumley said. “Even though with (Franklin) Gutierrez and Ichiro, it’s a little different, but most of the big, brawny guys are that way. So, they really have worked on attacking early, then breaking down and trying to get in a good spot to throw.”

Brumley said the most important thing is to get Peguero and others into a “process of development” where they find a defensive rhythm.

What most impressed Brumley on Sunday wasn’t Peguero’s tying home run or throw to nab the runner. It was that Peguero had hustled to back up third base earlier with a runner tagging from second on a fly ball to right field.

Peguero wasn’t always a home-run hitter.

He averaged just nine per season his first four years of professional baseball before clubbing 31 in 2009 for Class A High Desert. Just before that season, he’d worked with minor-league hitting instructors Jose Castro and Tommy Cruz on his batting stance, posture and pitch recognition.

Everything clicked and Peguero was able to leverage his muscular frame into the best position to send balls soaring into the stands. He followed up with 23 more long balls at Class AA Jackson last season and made it to the All-Star Futures Game, where he went 2 for 4.

“The most important thing was to be patient at home plate,” Peguero said. “Be patient, look for the ball and hit it somewhere-hard.”

He’s figured out the latter part. Now, the team hopes he, Chavez and others can work out the rest of their games so future Mariners power displays won’t be limited to spring training.

(c) 2011, The Seattle Times. Visit The Seattle Times Extra on the World Wide Web at http://www.seattletimes.com/. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.