Lefty conquers adversity
Bobby Madritsch needed one of these.
His spring training had gone so smoothly that he seemed on an easy street toward the regular season. He had a 3.00 earned run average and streak of six straight scoreless innings.
Then Madritsch took the mound Tuesday for the Seattle Mariners against the Chicago White Sox and had nothing. He couldn’t locate his fastball, he had no feel for his changeup, and he needed 28 pitches just to get through the first inning.
Deep down, his pitching coach was glad to see it.
“It’s great to have the good spring, but it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for when you get challenged during the season,” Bryan Price said.
Price agrees with the theory that it’s just as good to face difficult situations in spring training as it is to sail through it.
“You can come out here and throw 25 great innings in spring training,” Price said. “You may never be tested with multiple runners on base – or the two-run double and the heart of the lineup coming up – that forces you to grit your way through it.”
Madritsch, a 29-year-old left-hander who has no shortage of grit, showed himself and his team something Tuesday.
He never solved the mechanical issues that caused him to struggle, but he corralled the anger that often boils within him and endured five difficult innings when it looked like he might not get through three.
“After the first inning, the goal was, ‘What are you going to take out of this game? Can you battle through it or can’t you?’ ” Price said.
Madritsch made adjustments. He used his slide step in an effort to keep the ball low, held the White Sox to four hits and four runs through five innings and gave the Mariners a chance to come back and win. They did with a four-run eighth inning for a 6-4 victory.
Along the way, Madritsch said he learned a great lesson about pitching.
“Being able to come out of it with what I had for the first three innings, that’s a big accomplishment,” he said. “After that first inning, it could have gone downhill. But instead of saying to myself, ‘Hopefully I’m not going to throw a ball,’ I just said, ‘… I’m going to give it all I have.’ I went out and I felt the confidence come back and I started to get into a rhythm.”
Just as important, Madritsch didn’t let his anger knock himself off kilter. That’s been an issue. One bad inning, or one bad pitch, can set him off.
“B.P. (Price) has talked to me about not getting mad at myself so much, and if I do, not to let the other team know it,” Madritsch said.
“He takes it personally when he gives up a base hit or a hard-hit ball,” Price said. “If he can continue to funnel that energy in a positive way and take it as a challenge the next time he faces that hitter, it’s a good thing. If it takes him out of his game plan, it’s a negative.”
On the field
Royals 15, Mariners 15: Richie Sexson hit a three-run home run and Raul Ibanez added another three-run shot and finished with six RBIs as a Seattle split squad tied a Kansas City split squad at Peoria, Ariz.
Mariners 4, Angels 3: At Peoria, Ariz., Jeremy Reed tripled and singled, driving in a run with each hit, and Felix Hernandez pitched two strong innings of relief, leading a Mariners split squad to a win over Los Angeles.