Sea-Tac Mariners Resume Musical Rosters To Fill Voids

If you think you need a program to keep track of the Seattle Mariners, think how the Tacoma Rainiers must feel.

Again on Thursday, the Mariners fired up the Tacoma shuttle. And once again, players flew every which way.

Ken Griffey Jr. was placed on the disabled list and the Mariners called up Rainiers outfielder Manny Martinez as a temporary reserve. Seattle also activated reliever Bobby Ayala, who’d made one appearance in Tacoma, and sent down Tim Harikkala - the pitcher who’d made one appearance in Seattle.

The moves meant the Mariners have, at the moment, 10 players on their 25-man roster who have also played for Tacoma this season: Darren Bragg, Brian Hunter, Edwin Hurtado, Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Sheets, Ayala, Rafael Carmona, Lee Guetterman and Matt Wagner.

While most of the attention Thursday was on Griffey’s surgery to remove a small broken bone in his right hand, he wasn’t the only Mariner on the operating table.

Team physician Larry Pedegana, who operated on Griffey, also inserted a screw into the broken left leg of third baseman Russ Davis. Davis, who broke his leg June 7 in Kansas City, is expected to miss another two months.

When he’s ready to play again, he’ll need at least a few weeks to rehabilitate the leg. Guess where he’ll play? Tacoma.

Notes

Bragg leads the team with six outfield assists this season and, in his 102 major league games, he’s thrown out 13 base runners… . When Seattle needs a No. 5 starter on July 1 against Oakland, the team is leaning toward giving one of its relievers the opportunity rather than bring in a pitcher from Tacoma. The candidates? Hurtado and Carmona… . Joey Cora is batting .391 over his past 17 games… . Catcher Dan Wilson is about to get national attention: Sports Illustrated has assigned a writer to do a story on him this week… . Alex Rodriguez stole his fifth base of the season Thursday, a new singleseason career high.