KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mike Sweeney screamed from the Seattle Mariners training room Thursday, issuing what amounted to an all-points-bulletin.
“Junior! Ichiro! You’ve got to come see this thing!” he yelled, and began ushering in teammates who were jumping at the chance to look at David Aardsma’s lanced boil – an open wound on his backside.
“It looks like a bullet wound,” Sweeney said.
“Ugly. Ugly,” Ichiro said after the viewing.
By all accounts, the lanced boil was an improvement over the pre-lanced version, at least for poor Aardsma. But after it was lanced, a decision was made not to close the wound – just to bandage it and clean it regularly to avoid infection.
“I could probably pitch tonight, but they want to give me another day,” Aardsma said. “They don’t want me to sweat, because it might infect the area.”
Fascinated by the size of the boil on Wednesday, when they took cell-phone camera photos of it, teammates gathered around Aardsma in the training room Thursday, staring at his naked bum.
“It got a little annoying only because guys were so loud I couldn’t hear what the trainers were trying to tell me,” Aardsma said.
If the boil had been on another Mariner, would Aardsma have run to the training room for a look?
“Oh, absolutely,” he said.
For those wanting the grisly details: the boil was low on Aardsma’s backside and … um … centered.
“You know how some guys are day-to-day?” manager Don Wakamatsu asked. “Well, Aardsma is minute-to-minute today. If we need him, I’ll ask him how he’s feeling and we’ll see. A lot of it comes down to his pain tolerance.”
Sweeney says he’s not done
Longtime Kansas City Royal Mike Sweeney started what could have been his last game here, although he wasn’t quite willing to say that.
“You never know,” Sweeney said. “I might be back in a year. It comes down to three things: what my family wants, how my body feels, and is there an opportunity – does someone want me to play?”
Wakamatsu kidded Sweeney about starting him as the designated hitter.
“I told him I was tired of listening to all the ‘Where’s Sweeney?’ questions from the stands,” Wakamatsu said. “I succumbed to the pressure and played him.”
Short hops
Jose Lopez entered the game Thursday with a streak of seven consecutive games in which he’d driven in at least one run. He did it impressively – batting .583 with runners in scoring position. ... Catcher Rob Johnson seems to have found himself at the plate. Since July 1, he’s reached base with a hit or a walk in 18 of the 19 games in which he’s played, batting .301 with 12 walks and an on-base percentage of .413. ... Ichiro Suzuki, who started the season on the disabled list, is on pace for 230 hits this season – most in the majors.
On tap
Seattle hosts the Tampa Bay Rays in a 7:10 p.m. game on FSN. Probable starting pitchers: Jeff Niemann (10-5, 3.62) vs. Felix Hernandez (12-4, 2.78).
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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