Sports

POSTED: Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008

MARINERS NOTEBOOK: M's on wrong side of close games

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Forty-four of their first 151 games have been decided by one run, and in games that close the Seattle Mariners are 17-27.

What does it mean, if anything, to play so many tight games?

“If you win them, you start to learn what it takes to win them consistently,” bench coach Lee Elia said. “If you lose them, you learn about the little things that keep you from winning, and you grow from it.”

Another Mariners coach who has managed, third base coach Sam Perlozzo, saw lessons to be learned in one-run games, too.

“When you’re playing them, the goal is to win one. Then to win another and get to the point where you expect to win them. If you lose them, it can mean you’re close, that you’re competitive – but that one mistake can still beat you,” Perlozzo said.

“You have to eliminate those. The team that eliminates the most mistakes usually wins. It’s a matter of improving, of getting better. It’s a learning process players and teams go through.”

Not surprisingly, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre looked at one-run games from a pitchers perspective.

“If you lose, you can think about what you could have done to win that game. Was it a matter of execution? One bad pitch, one bad play? From a pitcher’s point of view, if you didn’t execute on a few pitches you realize you still had a chance to win, and you work to eliminate the mistakes,” Stottlemyre said.

Catcher Kenji Johjima said the kind of game a team plays dictates the direction it must be going, and that managers and coaches play the role of detective, watching it unfold.

“When you play close games and lose, there’s a reason,” Johjima said. “You have to find what that reason is and eliminate it.”

Hit parade to nowhere

Here’s your offense: Ichiro Suzuki (201), Raul Ibañez (182) and Jose Lopez (180) all rank in the top five among the American League hits leaders.

To find the last time a team had three hitters in the top five, you have to go back to the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays and Paul Molitor, John Olerud and Roberto Alomar.

The Blue Jays won the World Series that year.

Short hops

Ichiro’s 200th hit of the season on Wednesday was an infield single, his 48th of the year. That pushed him one ahead of Minnesota’s Carlos Gomez for the league lead in infield hits. … There haven’t been many save opportunities of late, but over his last 18 appearances, J.J. Putz is 4-0 with six saves and a 2.00 earned run average. … Forgotten Man: Jamie Burke started at catcher Thursday for the first time in 19 days. … The Mariners have blown 29 saves, second in the majors to St. Louis (30). Seattle has had the lead in 38 of 94.