Edgar Martinez Terror On Lefties
Edgar Martinez has terrorized pitchers all season but been a particularly galling problem for left-handers - against who he now has one of the highest single-season batting averages in major league baseball over the past 20 years.
After pounding Andy Pettitte on Friday night, Martinez’s average vs. lefties in 1995 was .438. Only Houston’s Jeff Bagwell last season (.457) has had better numbers against southpaws since 1975.
Martinez is on pace to blow by a handful of franchise records - for batting average, hits, runs, walks, doubles, maybe even RBI in a season that is 18 games shorter than those in which each of those records was established.
If this were a regular 162-game season, Martinez would project out these numbers: .370, 35 home runs, 137 RBIs, 61 doubles, 141 runs and 144 walks.
No Mariner has ever had a comparable season.
Risley suffers family mishaps
For the second consecutive game, the Mariners were without Bill Risley in the bullpen their bullpen - though their thoughts were with him as he sat bedside in a Seattle hospital.
Thursday night, Risley, his wife, Brenda, and daughter, Kiana, went out for a Chinese dinner after an afternoon game. Kiana, not quite two-years-old, picked up a pot of hot tea and before either parent could stop her, tried to drink it.
She scalded her mouth and throat and has been hospitalized since. Her throat was so swollen that physicians inserted a tube to insure her breathing, and her condition is stabilized.
“We’re told she’s going to be fine, but Bill is still shaken,” manager Lou Piniella said. “Any time your child is hurt, it’s a frightening thing, and he’s got to take whatever time he needs for her.”
The Mariners are hoping Risley can rejoin them before the start of their trip in Boston Tuesday.
Bald is Buhner
Jay Buhner still thinks bald is beautiful, but he admitted last Thursday that the hairless can also make him nervous.
On Buhner Buzz Cut Night II on Wednesday, 717 of the shaved-headed faithful got into the Kingdome free and sat in the right field stands, chanting happy slogans to Buhner, their hero.
Late in the game, two men - one after the other - trotted from the seats into right field and bowed to Buhner as if to worship him. Each was led off the field by police.
“I’ve got to admit, I was a little leery when they came out on the field,” Buhner said, “but you’ve got to be. You never know what somebody has in mind. Neither one of them came very close to me.”
If they had?
“I’d have asked them what the hell they had in mind,” Buhner said.
Buhner’s happiest moment was shaving the head of his son, Chase.
“He walked around the house today and he’d rub his head and yell ‘All gone!’ ” Buhner said. “He’s like me - he’s got a good head to be bald. Some have that, some don’t.”
Pop-ups
Reliever Norm Charlton’s 2-1/3 shutout innings Friday continued a remarkable comeback for the 32-year-old left-hander who missed all of the ‘94 season and was released by Philadelphia in early July. With the Phillies this year, Charlton was 2-5 with a 7.36 earned run average in 25 appearances.
Since signing with the Mariners on July 14, Charlton has pitched in 15 games and gone 0-1 with two saves and a 1.80 ERA and hasn’t allowed a run in his last 9-1/3 innings… . Statistical oddity: After The Edgar hit a pair of home runs against New York Friday, both he and Tino Martinez had 41 career homers in the Kingdome… .
Catcher Dan Wilson has 33 RBI this season, 11 of them in his last 18 games… . Seattle has clinched the season series against New York for the first time since 1991 and just the 4th time in the 19-year franchise history.
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