Nervous Johjima does well

SEATTLE – Warming up in the Safeco Field bullpen as the cast of Opening Day was being called to the foul lines for introductions, Jamie Moyer stopped to ask the Seattle Mariners’ new catcher, Kenji Johjima, how long he’d been waiting for this day.

“Twelve years,” Johjima told him.

“OK,” said Moyer. “That day’s here. Have fun.”

“I’ll try,” said Johjima unsteadily. “Nervous.”

Nerves. The universal language.

There were nerves at work on both sides of the big drink Monday afternoon, though they weren’t always obvious. The carnival that is Opening Day didn’t go on with the lilt of the usual calliope, what with the sky gray, the roof closed and the Mariners coming off a second straight 90-loss bummer.

Never has a Safeco opener been played in front of so many unoccupied seats.

When the bats failed and the bullpen blinked, the M’s lost to the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 and it was almost a relief from the cruelty of excessive hope – and yet Seattle also played well enough to postpone the dread for another day. That’s as much as any Mariners fan could expect for a start.

That and Johjima stroking his first major league hit over the right field fence.

There have been more anticipated Mariners free-agent debuts – Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre just last April – but surely none fraught with as much angst as that of Kenji Johjima.

The M’s signed him to a three-year contract for $16.5 million after last season’s absurd bit of musical chairs – or charity – when seven different players took turns behind the plate, including Dan Wilson, a mainstay for 12 years whose injuries nudged him into retirement.

It wasn’t just the money and replacing the franchise security blanket. There was the incredible good luck the M’s have enjoyed with their Japanese imports, a streak that no one wants to see end.

There was the undeniable fact the team didn’t just need a capable catcher, but was desperate for the 23-homers-a- year pop in his bat.

And there was the history that no Japanese catcher had ever made this jump before, and the leap of faith it took to turn over the job as team switchboard and lead communicator to someone who doesn’t do the language so well yet.

“I get all that,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “But him catching for us gives us a chance to be good. He gives us leadership and abilities back there we didn’t have last year.”

Johjima’s power – he nearly sent another opposite-field shot out – was welcome enough, as was the heads-up catch-and- throw he made to blunt an Angels rally. But what will be scrutinized all year is his handling of pitchers and grasp of his many responsibilities. He seems to accept that more easily than questions about his command of English.

“It’s not like we’re going to talk about the government on the mound,” he said.

But in fact, the unspoken parts of the pitcher-catcher relationship may be even more important.

At 43, Moyer has thrown to more catchers than he can count, and each of them had to be broken in one way or another. To illustrate the point with Johjima, Moyer cited a brief powwow in the third inning.

Moyer had shaken off a signal for a pitch – wanting Johjima to “come right back to that sign,” as a way to further deke the batter. Instead, Johjima rolodexed through all the signs, then called timeout.

“It’s hard to explain – it’s part of the flow,” Moyer said. “Sometimes (the catcher comes) right back to the pitch you shook off because he knows it’s the right pitch. Or he knows what you’re thinking. Or maybe you had a conversation before the game.”

Moyer also remembered another early game circumstance when the M’s had gotten into a particular rhythm on pitches and he thought, “We’ve got to be careful about a pattern here. And between innings I talked to him about it.

“This is the fourth time he’s caught me. We haven’t created that relationship yet, the (communication without speaking). Sometimes it’s a look or how you’re standing. I’ve had catchers – Danny did it well – (who could see it) in the way you shake yes or no. Ask me to explain it and I can’t – it’s just something that happened during the whole process. And that will evolve over time.”

Moyer said he told Johjima to “trust his catching instincts – he’s been a catcher for 18 years.”

Whether that reminder was needed or not, surely instinct had something to do with Johjima’s trip to the mound in the ninth inning to consult with reliever J.J. Putz. Orlando Cabrera was looking at a two-strike count with runners in scoring position.

“I wanted (us) to choose if we were going to throw inside or outside,” Johjima said. “That’s because the two batters he faced before was kind of the same pattern.”

They settled on inside. But Putz left the pitch up over the plate instead, and Cabrera’s single won the game.

“If he threw that pitch more inside,” Johjima said, “maybe that would have been a different situation.”

Outcome, he meant. But close enough.

“He’s got a pretty good idea,” Hargrove insisted.

And now, so do we.