M’s curb Hernandez’s innings
SEATTLE – The Mariners have taken their first step in holding Felix Hernandez to the 200-inning plateau they set for their 20-year-old right-hander before spring training.
Hernandez has been pulled from his scheduled start Sunday against the Tigers and he won’t pitch again until after the All-Star break. Right-hander Gil Meche will pitch Sunday.
“This goes back to what we talked about before spring training,” manager Mike Hargrove said.
The Mariners set a limit of 200 innings for the year, including Hernandez’s spring training work. He pitched 14 exhibition innings and is at 103 2/3 in the regular season.
Skipping Sunday’s outing is a step toward that goal, although the M’s may need more adjustments to hold Hernandez to 200.
If he starts Friday’s game at Toronto – which would be his first outing in 10 days – Hernandez would get 14 starts before the end of the season. That still would push him to more than 210 innings for the year if he averages 6 2/3 innings, which he has in his past nine starts.
Fast rise to majors
One of the last people who thought Mark Lowe would reach the major leagues by now was, well, Mark Lowe.
The 23-year-old right-hander was pitching for the Everett AquaSox two seasons ago and he began this year with the Class A Inland Empire 66ers.
A brief but successful stint at Class AA San Antonio earned him a promotion to the Mariners on Friday, but not without adventure. He’d been promoted from San Antonio to Class AAA Tacoma earlier this week and checked into a hotel Thursday waiting to join the Rainiers, who’d been on a road trip before starting a homestand Friday.
The Eddie Guardado trade Thursday changed everything.
Lowe became the chosen pitcher to replace Guardado.
“I was in California in April and now here I am living what I’ve always dreamed about,” said Lowe. “I didn’t even expect to be called up to Triple-A as fast as I did. The only thing I did in Triple-A was sleep for eight hours.”
Lowe, a sinker/slider/fastball pitcher, will work in middle relief.