Don’t use your head
SURPRISE, Ariz. – In Jarrod Washburn’s way of thinking, it’s not good to think.
That’s what got him in trouble last year, he said, when he went 8-14 and experienced a crummy first season with the Seattle Mariners.
“Instead of just being myself, I came in and tried to fit in and be one of the guys,” Washburn said. “It took away from who I am. I get in trouble when I think. No more thinking – just go out and throw the baseball.”
Washburn is doing just that.
He isn’t completely satisfied with his game even though the results have been good, including his outing Thursday. In his second exhibition start, Washburn gave up one hit in three shutout innings in the Mariners’ 11-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
It continued an impressive stretch of pitching by the Mariners’ starters. In their last four outings – by Washburn, Felix Hernandez, Miguel Batista and Horacio Ramirez – the starters have allowed just one run in 11 innings, a 0.82 ERA. Opposing hitters have a .108 average against them.
Jeff Weaver, who struggled in his first outing on Sunday, gets the ball today against Colorado.
Washburn said the starters’ recent numbers may look good, but they’re just as meaningless as the Mariners’ 1-7 Cactus League record.
“It is spring training and the games don’t mean a thing right now,” he said. “But it shows what we’re capable of. We have the capability of having a real solid five-guy rotation. We’ll go out there with a chance to win every single night. That’s our main goal as starters, to give our team a chance to win.”
In his two exhibition outings, Washburn has allowed three hits and one run in five innings.
“I feel way more relaxed this year, way more at-ease and comfortable,” he said. “I know what my job is, and that’s to go out and give team a chance to win. That’s all I’m concerning myself with.”
That’s the approach Washburn took during his seven seasons with the Angels, including 2002 when he went 18-6 on Anaheim’s World Series championship team.
“For me, the biggest thing is always health,” Washburn said. “If I’m healthy, I’m successful for the most part. If I’m not healthy, I try to battle through it the best I can.”
He wouldn’t admit to being hurt last year, although there were reports of arm soreness during the season. He missed the last two weeks with a calf injury.
“Last year was a battle for me,” he said. “I had a lot of little aches and pains and nagging injuries here and there.”
Between his physical challenges and the mental strain of trying to live up to the four-year, $37.5 million contract he signed with the Mariners, Washburn admits he put too much pressure on himself.
In short, he thought too much.
“I was trying to fit in with a new team,” he said. “It was the first time ever in my career I’d been in that situation. I was learning all my new teammates and learning how the organization was run. It was my first time with a new catcher. There were a ton of things that were different for me last year.”
This year, Washburn has cleared his head of everything but the little things he must worry about on the mound. One of his prime goals is to pitch inside more effectively to left-handed hitters.
He tried that with mixed results Thursday, retiring all of the lefties he faced except Alex Gordon in the second inning. Washburn grazed Gordon with a pitch, which he considered a minor victory.
“You tell yourself, ‘Don’t hit ‘em, don’t hit ‘em,’” Washburn said. “And after you leave a couple over the middle of the plate, you’re like, ‘Heck with it, hit ‘em if you have to.’ I made sure I was in with that pitch and it just got a little bit of his arm.”
Mission accomplished? Not really.
“I guess, if I’m going to hit them, I’d like to hit them square,” Washburn said. “I don’t like those cheap ones where they go to first base on a little graze.”
Time to step up
With few openings on the 25-man roster, someone will have to make a huge impression to win a spot. A few pitchers caught Hargrove’s eye during the loss to the Royals, but for all the wrong reasons.
After Washburn pitched three scoreless innings, Jorge Campillo, Jake Woods, Sean Green and Jim Parque struggled.
Campillo gave up five runs, four hits, one home run and made a throwing error in the fourth inning; Woods allowed two hits and two runs in the fifth; Green allowed two hits, including a home run, in the sixth; and Parque was rocked for three runs on three hits, including a monster home run by the Royals’ Billy Butler, in the seventh.
“Some of them are starting on their third time out,” Hargrove said. “Some opinions are starting to be formed and they’ve got to turn it on. Today wasn’t a good day for Campillo. It didn’t help his cause at all.”
Left-hander Justin Thomas, the minor leaguer who pitched two impressive innings early in the week, pitched a scoreless eighth, allowing a hit and a walk but striking out two.
Notes
The Mariners re-assigned outfielder Rayon Lampe to their minor league camp, leaving 59 players in the major league camp. Lampe, who played in the Venezuelan summer league the past two years, has played in one exhibition game this month as an outfield replacement. … Three former Mariners of note played well during the day. Outfielder Chris Snelling went 2 for 3 with two RBIs for Washington and is batting .333; Atlanta reliever Rafael Soriano gave up two hits in one scoreless inning in his first exhibition appearance; and Joel Pineiro gave up one hit in one inning for Boston.