PEORIA, Ariz.—From slumping to slugging.
Minutes after former Mariners star Edgar Martinez said while visiting the stadium he believed Ichiro Suzuki could hit more home runs if he wanted to, Seattle’s current franchise cornerstone did just that.
Suzuki hit his first spring homer in five years off Franklin Morales in Seattle’s 9-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday.
“I was so worried about it, I couldn’t sleep,” Suzuki deadpanned, through his interpreter.
The seven-time All-Star and hit maestro has 57 home runs in the regular season since arriving in Seattle in 2001. He got his first hit in 22 spring at-bats the day before.
Suzuki also had his first solid single of the spring, a lined single in the second off Morales, last fall’s rookie wonder who allowed 10 hits and nine runs—five earned—in 2 2-3 innings.
Suzuki, who has the most hits in the major leagues since ’01, is now 3-for-29 (.103) in Arizona.
He also swung and missed at a pitch for only the second time all spring, perhaps a more telling sign he is not as far from regular-season form as it would seem.
“All things are barometers to how ready I am for the season,” Suzuki said, saying it is too early to assess whether he’s ready.
Morales, who made his major league debut last August and was a big part of Colorado’s rotation for the final six weeks of the season, is no sure thing to open this season there. The Rockies won each of the last seven games started by the 22-year-old in 2007, including two postseason starts. Then he allowed seven runs in 2-3 of an inning of relief in Game 1 of the World Series at Boston, the third time a relief pitcher had allowed seven runs in a World Series outing.
Morales had encouraged Colorado by allowed one run and three hits in his previous spring start, four innings against San Francisco. Friday, he allowed four runs in the first inning and five in the third. Morales walked two, with a wild pitch and a balk.
“He didn’t make the club after his last outing. And he didn’t not make the club after this one,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
“He’s got work to do.”
When asked if Morales, in his second major-league camp, is progressing fast enough to make the rotation, Hurdle said: “Did you watch the way he pitched last year? Did he ever pitch badly last year, besides the World Series? That was a bad start. … I don’t think he was in over his head.”
Miguel Batista, who led Seattle with 16 wins last year but is its No. 5 starter now, allowed three hits and two runs in five innings.
“I think this was the hardest he’s thrown all spring,” Mariners John McLaren said.
Note:@ Rockies OF Seth Smith tumbled into home and took and throw in the back of the neck behind the left ear in the seventh. Smith left the game, but a Rockies trainer said he was “OK. He’ll have a headache.”
