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Seattle Mariners

New face of Mariners remains under veil

SEATTLE – In a three-batter span bridging innings 2 and 3 on Monday afternoon, the Seattle Mariners put a face on all the offseason fuss.

On a grounder deep into the hole, shortstop Jack Wilson ranged behind the crossing path of third baseman Jose Lopez, gloved the ball and grenade-lobbed it over Lopez and in the general direction of first baseman Casey Kotchman, who stretched high to the outfield side for the putout. Then second baseman Chone Figgins angled quickly to the right field line to snare a troublesome pop fly on a dead run. And finally, Kotchman did a full layout to stop a one-hop rocket down the line and then outraced Oakland’s Gabe Gross to the bag.

Gold gloves, much love – though, notably, none of it brought 45,876 Opening Day witnesses to their feet the way a three-run homer would.

Meanwhile, over the course of a full nine innings, the M’s also gave a face to what all the recent fretting has been about.

Lazy fly balls early in the count. Weak infield grounders. Flailing at fat changeups. Hard-hit balls so infrequent that any semi-loud foul liner was cheered as Ruthian.

On Opening Day 2010, the Seattle Mariners endured a two-hit, 4-0 shutout at the hands of Oakland’s Justin Duchscherer, whose most recent major league victory had been 21 months ago. Imagine the silence of the bats when the M’s face a pitcher who’s in a groove.

In the clubhouse, 25 Chip Dillers hold up their hands and proclaim, “Remain calm! All is well!” Well, make that 24. Milton Bradley couldn’t be coaxed out of the training room, where he was either looking for his swing or getting diathermy on the middle finger he overused last week in Texas.

But the M’s – the pick to win the American League West for those who fancy themselves on the cutting edge of Moneyball chic – are 2-6. They proclaim that it is too soon for panic and it is, but they also allow that they’re pressing at both the plate and on the mound – and what is pressing but an early manifestation of panic?

“It’s gonna change – it always does,” insisted Figgins, one of general manager Jack Zduriencik’s heralded offseason triumphs. “Good teams battle through things and that’s what we’ve got here.”

Aren’t the standings meant to sort that out?

The blessing of opening the baseball season at home is that if you lose, it can be dismissed as just one of 162 games. But when you drag butt into town after a 2-5 road trip and the great winter buzz you generated by trading for a Cy Young winner who has yet to pitch and other Hot Stove heat is gone, and you lose yet again – well, there’s trouble.

“There’s no one more disappointed than the 25 guys in that room for the performance on Opening Day,” said manager Don Wakamatsu.

Really? Were they out 50 bucks a ticket, too?

The Mariners tried to drum up the usual goodwill via the Waybac machine, bringing in the recently retired Randy Johnson to throw out the first pitch, and then surrounding him with Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson for a snapshot on the infield grass that surely elicited a tear somewhere in Safeco Field – if only for the realization that, “Geez, they had all this talent and still couldn’t reach the World Series?”

But by doubling down on defense and pitching over the winter, the M’s are – at long last – reaching for a new identity, and that process has proven fitful, starting with the abdominal strain that put Cliff Lee on the disabled list to start the season and ending with a lineup that has six regulars under the Mendoza line and only Franklin Gutierrez hitting the ball at all.

Twenty one runs in eight games. And the strain on the pitching staff was never more apparent than when starter Ryan Rowland-Smith threw three perfect innings – and then walked the first three batters of the fourth trying to nibble and fool, knowing he’d have to hurl a shutout just to get a tie.

“If this happens in the middle of the season, it’s kind of a rut,” Wilson said, “but because it’s happening at the beginning it’s a bigger deal than it actually is.”

OK. But only once in their history have the Mariners taken a losing April and turned it into a winning season – their first one, in 1991. This team is supposed to have considerably higher aspirations.

“Better now,” said catcher Rob Johnson, “than in September.”

Except Aprils like this don’t allow you to assume a meaningful September.