(Jesse) has been inconsistent and that's a concern. He's had four outings this spring. Half have been good and half bad, and it seems to alternate. We need to address the issue of inconsistency. |
[Mariners 2, Athletics 0: Felix Hernandez allowed four hits and a walk in seven shutout innings for visiting Seattle, which left the A's 1 1/2 games behind in the wild-card race. Hernandez, 19, outdueled Joe Blanton and didn't complain when he was pulled.] Felix, if he had a mouth full of nickels, he wouldn't give you change for a quarter, ... He doesn't speak much. |
[Seattle | Manager Mike Hargrove said Mike Morse will use his 10-day suspension for violating baseball's steroids policy to work on his OF skills. Morse has started 50 games at SS this season and four in LF.] Mike's going to get intensive work, ... He doesn't need to conserve his energy for games. |
[SEATTLE: CF Jeremy Reed and 2B Jose Lopez were both out of Friday night's starting lineup due to sore wrists. Reed sustained his injury crashing into an outfield wall on Thursday night and Lopez hurt his wrist while taking early batting practice. Both are day to day. ... Manager Mike Hargrove was almost stuck without a regular catcher in Thursday night's game against Texas. Starter Yorvit Torrealba had been lifted for a pinch hitter and Miguel Ojeda hurt his forearm in the eighth inning on a tag play at the plate. Ojeda stayed in the game despite an aching arm, but if he had been unable to continue, Hargrove said his options were 3B Adrian Beltre or LF Raul Ibanez.] It wouldn't have been pretty but we would have had somebody out there, ... We would have been calling pitches from the dugout. |
[So what information had the Orioles acquired? Precious little. They had learned that the wheel play was not on. Not on the first pitch, at least. Which did not surprise Johnson:] Our reports were that they did not run the wheel. ... That's what you get for assuming. |
[The starters] have, for the most part, given us a chance to win every night. As a whole, they've done their jobs. |
A good game for us, although I was worried about Eddie [Guardado] in the ninth, he was out of sync so much. Not only did we get key hits late, but we had real good pitching and got key outs when we needed. |
a good kid whose heart is in the right place, who made a mistake two years ago. |
A grown man hit that ball today. |
A lot of guys wouldn't have done that. |
A pretty impressive debut, rough luck there in the first inning, but he threw the ball well. He got better as he went along. We'll increase his pitch count the next outing. |
About this time, with an opening or two on the bench and the same in the bullpen, things start to get interesting. |
Absolutely. He handles the pitching staff very well. He has an idea out there and sticks with a game plan. We'd like to see him hit more, but there's time for that. |
Actually, Ryan was in a little room that's right behind the dugout. He was ranting and raving back there, just doing what every player since Abner Doubleday has done. |
Adrian's a good player, |