April Showers Bring May Blowers
The further he gets from the month of April, the better Mike Blowers plays.
After an April in which he went 3-for-25 - a .120 average that wasn’t much worse than his career number for the month - the Seattle Mariners reserve infielder batted .314 in the month of May.
And Sunday he greeted the month of June, and Detroit left-hander Justin Thompson, with an opposite field home run that was his second of the season. As it turned out, it also was the game-winning hit.
“With me, it’s always been the same,” Blowers said. “I struggle the first month no matter how hard I work in the off-season. In the second month, I start getting my hits. And in my third month, I start driving the ball.
“I knew if I got on base, Lou was going to pinch-run for me,” Blowers said, “so I just wanted to get on base, get us going.”
Instead, he homered down the right-field line - his first home run since April 5.
“I’m feeling better,” Blowers said.
He should. It’s June.
M’s hire new executive
Bob Aylward, a consultant with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays the past two years, has been hired as vice president of business and sales by the Seattle Mariners, the team said Sunday.
Aylward, 43, replaces Bob Gobrecht, who left the Mariners last year when his wife, Chris Gobrecht, resigned as the coach of the University of Washington women’s basketball team to go to Florida State.
Notes
Joey Cora was not in the Seattle starting lineup as manager Lou Piniella chose to rest him after the second baseman had gone hitless two consecutive days following his club-record 24-game hitting streak. How hot has Cora been? If you take his .449 batting average in May out of the equation, the Mariners’ team average for the month drops from .287 to .267. He could have played Sunday, but his right elbow was swollen and tender after being hit by a pitch Saturday… . A sign of two teams heading in opposite directions? Seattle’s staff earned-run average in May was 6.17, and the team went 11-16. Detroit posted a 3.17 ERA and went 14-11.