It had been two weeks since the ground ball to first jumped up and hit Justin Smoak in the nose, landing the Seattle Mariners first baseman on the disabled list with a break in his nose and just below one eye.
On Friday, someone asked Smoak when he was going to be able to play.
“Sunday,” he said.
And what position?
“Left field,” he deadpanned.
For the first time since that game against Boston, Smoak was cleared to take grounders Friday, and understandably he seemed to sidestep a few rather than hunker down in front.
“He’s going to go full-out for a few days and we’ll see where we are,” manager Eric Wedge said.
6-MAN ROTATION
Wedge made it official: The Mariners will stick with a six-man starting rotation for at least another turn or two through, which was good news for rookie left-handed pitcher Anthony Vasquez.
Vasquez made his big league debut in Cleveland and won his first start. He allowed five earned runs in 5 innings, but the Mariners backed him with 10.
“If we’d scored one or two runs, no one would have been congratulating me,” Vasquez said of his first effort. “I was missing spots – a lot of spots – with my pitches. (Catcher) Josh Bard really helped me through it.”
A finesse pitcher who tops out at 84 mph, Vasquez will make his next start at Safeco Field next week against the Los Angeles Angels.
1,000 GAMES
Want to feel old? The game with the Chicago White Sox on Friday was the 1,000th played by the Mariners in Safeco Field – including four games against Florida in which Seattle was the “visiting” team.
Since opening in July 1999, the Mariners had gone 545-454 in the first 999 games.
In that time, the Mariners had managers Lou Piniella, Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove, John McLaren, Jim Riggleman, Don Wakamatsu, Daren Brown and Eric Wedge working the home dugout.
SHORT HOPS
The Mariners began the homestand batting .283 as a team in August – nearly 50 points higher than their average in any other month this season. The previous best was in April, when they hit .235. … Chance Ruffin became one half of the 30th father-and-son tandem to play in the big leagues. Interestingly, one of the other 29 duos was Julio Navarro and his son, now-Mariners bullpen coach Jaime Navarro. … Over his past 17 games, center fielder Franklin Gutierrez has raised his season average from .194 to .222. … The White Sox came into town bearing former Mariners left-handed pitcher Matt Thornton and infielder Omar Vizquel, along with their bench coach, Joey Cora. They also brought in a special guest to their broadcast booth – former Seattle outfielder Tom Paciorek, filling in for Steve Stone for the series. … Wedge said rookie Kyle Seager, a second baseman who has played third base and shortstop since joining the team, is probably not going to be an everyday shortstop and will more likely get his at-bats elsewhere.
ON TAP
Seattle hosts Chicago in a 7:10 p.m. game that will be televised on Root Sports. Probable starting pitchers: Chicago’s John Danks (5-9, 3.88 ERA) vs. Michael Pineda (9-7, 3.73).
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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