Sharp Wolcott Earns ‘Demotion’
So what does Bob Wolcott earn as a reward for one of his best pitching performances this season?
How about 10 days with the team’s Class A affiliate in Lancaster, Calif.?
Wolcott was optioned to Lancaster after pitching 7-2/3 innings in Seattle’s 4-3 win over Oakland Wednesday. The move is so he can get in some work during the All-Star break and the team can call up an extra reliever, Makato Suzuki, for the four games before and after the break.
The plan is for Wolcott to pitch for Lancaster Wednesday, then return to start for the Mariners July 15 at Oakland. The move to Lancaster was necessary because Class AAA Tacoma and Class AA Port City will each also have All-Star breaks.
“It’s perfectly understandable,” Wolcott said. “They want to keep me working. They don’t want me to just sit around for 10 days, and I don’t want to, either, after a game like this. I want to keep working and working.”
Wolcott will join Lancaster immediately so he can stay on his normal off-day workout schedule.
The temporary demotion is a little ironic in that Wolcott admitted he was worried about his status with the team if he turned in a bad performance.
Wolcott hadn’t lasted more than 4-1/3 innings in his last three starts, and couldn’t stick around long enough to get the win in his last start, when the Mariners pounded Texas 19-8 Friday.
Wolcott said he was able to put the recent negativity out of his mind and decided to be more aggressive and throw strikes early in the count.
The plan worked as Wolcott threw first-pitch strikes to eight of the first nine hitters. Through four innings, Wolcott had thrown 40 pitches, 33 for strikes.
Wolcott (5-7) left with two outs in the eighth after Oakland tied the score, but he allowed only six hits and two earned runs while striking out seven.
“It just goes to show that if you are aggressive and get ahead of the hitters, you have a decent chance of getting them out,” said M’s manager Lou Piniella. “It’s a shame he didn’t win the ballgame, but it was a good, productive start for him.”
Suzuki shifts gears
Suzuki, meanwhile, figures to make his long-awaited major-league debut while Wolcott is in California.
Suzuki, 21, was signed by the Mariners to much fanfare in 1993 after starring in the California League a year after coming over from Japan.
When he makes his Mariners debut, he will become the third Japanese player to make the major leagues - the others are pitcher Masanori Murakami, who played with the Giants in 1964-65, and current Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo.
Coming up
The Mariners begin a four-game series in Texas at 4:35 p.m. PST today. Seattle’s Rusty Meachem (0-1, 4.63) will face Darren Oliver (7-2, 3.76).