Mariners Send Sheets Back Down

For Andy Sheets, the good news and the bad news were one in the same on Sunday.

The bad news was that the Mariners were optioning him to Class AAA Tacoma to make room on the roster for pitcher Bob Wolcott, who will start today’s game in Oakland.

The good news?

“I’ll get to play baseball again,” Sheets said, smiling.

The reality of the rookie’s role with Seattle was obvious early on. A shortstop in the minors, he wasn’t going to play the position in the big leagues with Alex Rodriguez already there. He wasn’t going to unseat Joey Cora at second base, and the M’s had Luis Sojo and Doug Strange to platoon at third.

“I learned a lot and I’m going to have to learn more if my role is utility man,” Sheets said. “I talked to guys like Rich Amaral, Doug Strange, Brian Hunter, to find out how they handled the job, what they thought, how they approached playing once every four or five days.

“Right now, I just need to play baseball again, stay sharp.”

Hitting coach Lee Elia agreed. “He’s a great kid and a good hitter and I think he’ll be a fine player,” he said. “He just needs to play, and that wasn’t going to happen here right now.”

Notes

First baseman Paul Sorrento joined an elite group when he homered into the right-field upper deck for the third time this season on Saturday. Only four other players had reached that level as many as three times. The others: Ken Griffey Jr. (9), Alvin Davis (5), Toronto’s Lloyd Moseby (4) and Tino Martinez (3).

Rodriguez will turn 21 on July 27 and has a chance to have 100 RBIs before that date. Over the past three seasons, Rodriguez has played 139 major-league games and his career total stands at 91 RBIs.

A year ago after 89 games, the Mariners’ record was 43-46.

Cora’s third-inning double was his 21st of the season, a career high.