Early work is commonplace at any baseball stadium.
Before any game, you will see players out on the field working any variety of the game’s fundamentals.
On Wednesday, catcher Adam Moore was out early catching pop flies in foul territory with catching coordinator Roger Hansen. But that simple task almost turned into a trip to the 15-day disabled list.
For a second it appeared that Moore might have injured himself while chasing down one a pop-up near the Mariners dugout in front of interim manager Daren Brown.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I had to scratch a catcher after early work with Roger,” Brown said.
Will it be the last?
“It may not be,” Brown said, laughing.
Moore went for a foul ball right near the opening of the dugout.
“I heard Brownie and Chris (Woodward) yell, ‘stairs, stairs,’ ” Moore said. “Right when I looked up it was too late, so I gave up on the ball and just tried to keep my balance.”
Moore leaped down into the dugout and disappeared out of sight.
It did help that Moore was wearing tennis shoes and not his spikes.
“I would have probably destroyed both ankles,” he laughed.
Moore stayed down in the dugout for a while, trying to bluff Hansen into thinking he was hurt.
“I was trying to milk it and hope that we would shut it down,” Moore said.
Hansen, who was feeding the pop-ups through a pitching machine, never flinched. He stood next to the machine with arm resting on it, hollering at Moore to get back out and take another turn.
“He was more concerned about his Oakleys being crushed,” Moore said.
Indeed, Moore borrowed Hansen’s sunglasses to do the drill because of the sunny sky.
“I thought he broke my glasses,” Hansen said. “It’s my last pair.”
KELLEY HAS SURGERY
While Moore avoided serious injury, reliever Shawn Kelley avoided having a second Tommy John (ligament-replacement) surgery.
Kelley had exploratory surgery on his right elbow on Wednesday in Los Angeles with Dr. Lewis Yocum. The surgery – repairing some fraying of the ligament near the elbow joint – was deemed successful largely because he did not have to replace the ulnar collateral ligament (Tommy John surgery).
“What they are calling it is a partial Tommy John and not the ligament itself,” Brown said.
Because there wasn’t a complete replacement of the ligament, Kelley’s return will be much quicker
“He will start rehab tomorrow and be able to start playing catch in four months,” Brown said.
ON TAP
The Mariners open a four-game series with the Cleveland Indians today at 7:05 p.m. at Safeco Field. Right-hander Doug Fister (4-10, 3.73 ERA) will start for the Mariners; Cleveland counters with right-hander Josh Tomlin (2-3, 4.08 ERA). The game will be broadcast on FSN.
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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