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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Slumping Buhner Remains Confident

Larry Larue Tacoma News-Tribune

For the first time in his major league career, Jay Buhner batted seventh in the lineup Sunday.

“It’s no big ego thing,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where I hit right now.”

A major force in Seattle’s offense - 84 home runs over the last two full seasons - Buhner is slumping, and after going 0-for-4 Sunday is now hitting .208 with five home runs and 21 RBIs. Last week, manager Lou Piniella gave him a rare day off.

On Sunday, Piniella dropped him down the Seattle lineup, from Buhner’s usual fifth to seventh.

“I’ve slumped before, but the last four days may be the worst ever,” Buhner said. “Before, at least we were winning. The last four days, I haven’t done a thing and we’ve lost.

“It’s mental, and it seems like every day it gets compounded because I do something else wrong,” Buhner said.

“It’s not how fast you start, but how well you finish, and I still think I can do what this team expects - hit 30 home runs, get 100 RBIs. I may not have 40 homers and 140 RBIs, but that might have been a career year. I don’t think anyone expects that again.”

Buhner is not taking it particularly well. But he has faith in himself, and so do his teammates.

“Jay is struggling right now, but we’ve all been there,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “He’ll get hot.”

Buhner growled when asked when that might be.

“Hey, it’ll all work out,” he said, sounding philosophical. Then he shook his head. “If not, bleep it!”

Notes

Joey Cora extended his hitting streak to 14 consecutive games with a first-inning single… . The game Sunday was a sellout, Seattle’s third of the season and just the third time in franchise history the Mariners had sold out consecutive regular season games. The team has sold out 23 regular-season games in club history - three of them this year… . Go figure: Edgar Martinez has a career batting average of .339 against left-handed pitching, but this season he’s hit only .226 vs. lefties. … A year ago, Junior hit his 19th home run on June 4 in Seattle’s 55th game of the year. Sunday he hit No. 19 in the Mariners 42nd game… . Griffey’s home run landed in the upper deck in right field, the fourth time this season he’s hit a ball there. Only 60 balls have reached that upper deck in Kingdome history. Junior has launched 14 of those.