Ichiro wobbles off field

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Seeing Ichiro Suzuki hit in the head with a pitch and knocked to the ground bothered the Seattle Mariners much more than losing a meaningless game.

Ichiro, the majors’ leading hitter, was struck in the right side of his head by a pitch from rookie Jimmy Serrano in the third inning of Kansas City’s 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

The Royals’ team doctor said Ichiro sustained a mild concussion and may not play today. While players and fans maintained a stunned silence, he remained face-down in the batter’s box for several minutes.

He finally walked off the field and did not return.

“I’m feeling dizzy. I’m not sure what the correct term is going to be, but I’m just feeling a little dizzy right now,” Ichiro said through his interpreter. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go tomorrow. I’m going to have to think about that tonight. That’s why I’m not happy.”

The pitch hit him toward the back of the right side of his batting helmet with an impact heard in the upper deck.

“It was an awful sound,” Seattle manager Bob Melvin said. “I’ve heard guys get hit in the helmet before, but that was not a good sound.”

When asked if he might be afraid of getting hit the next time he steps into the batter’s box, Ichiro grinned.

“I’m not going to be scared,” he said. “If you got up there, maybe you would be scared. But I’m not going to be scared.”

Serrano was making his third major league start.

“The pitch got away,” Serrano said. “It’s in the back of my mind the whole game. It’s not something I want to play over and over in my mind. It’s a pretty scary thing.”

John Buck hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth to boost the Royals to their first win in six home games.

Ichiro, batting .366 and with a major league-leading 189 hits, did not lost consciousness but was woozy and disoriented, Melvin said.

“I know (Serrano is) certainly not trying to hit him, but it’s missing by a pretty wide margin,” Melvin said.

With the Royals trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Desi Relaford hit a one-out single to right, and Buck sent Ryan Franklin’s first pitch over the left-field wall for his fifth homer.

D.J. Carrasco (2-1) pitched two perfect innings in relief for the win.

Franklin (3-12) retired 15 consecutive batters in one stretch, but lost his seventh consecutive decision. He allowed three runs and five hits in eight innings.

Jolbert Cabrera’s two-run homer had given Seattle a 2-1 lead in the seventh as the Mariners sought back-to-back road wins for the first time since mid-June.

Notes

The Mariners placed regular third baseman Justin Leone on the 15-day disabled list, a day after he suffered a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch by Matt Kinney in Kansas City.

The Mariners recalled infielder Ramon Santiago from Triple-A Tacoma to take Leone’s spot on their 25-man roster.

Leone is expected to miss four to six weeks while his injury mends. Since there are six weeks left this season, Leone’s first season in the majors could be over.

“Seattle closer Eddie Guardado will not need surgery on his pitching shoulder after all.

Guardado, 33, was examined Tuesday by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Anaheim Angels’ team physician.

Dr. Larry Pedegana, the Mariners’ medical director, diagnosed Guardado’s ailing left shoulder as a torn rotator cuff last week and recommended surgery.

Guardado is expected to return to his closing role by the start of the 2005 season. Surgery would have sidelined him for six to 10 months, which meant Guardado wouldn’t have been able to return until midseason next year at the earliest.

“Mariners pitcher Rafael Soriano had Tommy John surgery Tuesday because of a torn ligament in his pitching elbow. Soriano is expected to miss at least a year. The hard-throwing right-hander had a 3-0 record with a 1.53 ERA in 40 relief appearances last season for Seattle, but was 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA in six games in 2004. He was placed on the disabled list May 10.

Rainiers will stay

The Mariners will keep their Triple-A farm club in Tacoma through the 2006 season, the teams announced.

On Tuesday night, the Tacoma City Council unanimously approved a lease extension to keep the Rainiers playing at Cheney Stadium through 2006. The lease was up after the 2005 season.

That will give city and Pierce County officials more time to search for funding to renovate the 9,600-seat stadium, which opened in 1960.