Morrow saves day for Mariners
TORONTO – A ninth inning full of scares for the Seattle Mariners didn’t end until Raul Ibanez closed his glove on a ball at the warning track.
Ibanez’s team had already seen a much-speculated-upon flip-flop of closers take place earlier on in the inning, though not a planned switch by any stretch. When closer J.J. Putz started shaking his arm on the mound, alarm bells went off in the Mariners’ dugout and flame-throwing set-up reliever Brandon Morrow was brought in one walk plus three pitches into that final frame.
Morrow came on with a 1-2 count on Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vernon Wells, and promptly struck him out, plus the next batter, Matt Stairs, with 97 mph heat. But the 2-1 win on Wednesday afternoon and a .500 road trip for the Mariners wasn’t sealed until Ibanez snagged a Lyle Overbay drive at the warning track that looked like a game-clinching homer when it first left his bat.
“I definitely almost had a heart attack out there after that pitch,” a relieved Morrow said after having collected his first of what could become many more saves if Putz – pulled from the game with a sore elbow – is out of action for any length of time. “I thought that was gone for 98 percent of the flight of the ball. I thought Raul was just going to watch it go over the fence.”
Instead, the Rogers Centre crowd of 35,702 groaned and the Mariners escaped with their first .500 trip in nearly two months. The first non-losing trip since a late-April stint in Oakland and Anaheim was overshadowed nonetheless by the injury to Putz.
The closer hasn’t looked right in weeks and started this latest outing off by walking leadoff batter Joe Inglett on a full-count pitch.
Putz then jumped ahead on Wells, who’d gone down swinging twice earlier against Seattle starter Felix Hernandez with a runner on third and less than two out. But Mariners manager John McLaren and the team’s training staff bolted from the dugout after Putz landed the second strike.
“I saw him a couple of times grabbing his elbow and going like this,” McLaren said, shaking his hand and forearm for emphasis. “It just sent a red flag up.”
McLaren said this was the first he’d heard of any elbow problem involving Putz this season. Putz was sidelined for much of 2007 spring training with a problematic elbow, but both the closer and manager say they have no idea whether this is similar.
“I’m not sure about J.J.,” McLaren said, adding that the closer told him the elbow was “barking” during the plate appearance by Inglett and the Wells at-bat. “We’re just going to have to play it day by day.”
Save opportunities have been scarce for Putz since his late-April return off the disabled list from a rib injury. His rhythm has suffered and contributed to struggles he’s had with his command.
While the possibility of an injury has been speculated upon before, the team kept being reassured by the fact Putz’s velocity was rising. Putz was still hitting 95 mph in Wednesday’s affair before being pulled.
The subsequent rise of Morrow, who had been hitting 99 and even 100 mph in some dominant outings, had spurred debate about whether he should take the ninth inning and allow Putz to work through his struggles earlier in games.
Putz opted to withhold further comment until Friday, after he has visited with team doctors in Seattle and knows more about what the problem is. He said he can’t say whether he’s gone through this before because he doesn’t know exactly what’s causing the soreness.
The late-inning dramatics came after a duel between Hernandez and Toronto starter Shaun Marcum. Toronto opened the scoring in the sixth when Inglett doubled down the right-field line and took third when the ball eluded Jeremy Reed for an error.
Inglett later scored on a ground out to the right side.
The unearned run was the only marker Hernandez allowed. Seattle tied it in the seventh when Yuniesky Betancourt tripled to score Richie Sexson just moments after Seattle had botched a bunt attempt that became a double play.
Things remained tied until Ichiro drew a one-out walk off Toronto closer B.J. Ryan in the ninth. Ichiro stole second with two out, then swiped third. Ibanez then lined a ball into right field to put Seattle ahead to stay.
But the team couldn’t exhale until Ibanez, playing “no-doubles” defense a lot deeper than usual, snagged the Overbay blast.
The Mariners had endured a 3-3 trip that began after a postgame tirade by McLaren and general manager Bill Bavasi withholding towels and food from the players, and then continued with the firing of hitting coach Jeff Pentland.
“It’s been a real difficult road trip,” Ibanez said. “A lot of stuff has been going on.”
And now, with the closer down and the set-up man collecting saves, it still is going on.