A good day for rain

By Shannon Drayer

It was an uncommon but welcome sight to see the Mariners scurry back to their clubhouse as the rain hit Friday in Peoria, as a painful three-plus innings produced a score of 12-1 in favor of the visiting A’s after yet another disastrous Hector Noesi start.

Noesi gave up seven runs (six earned) in two innings off five hits (two home runs) while walking two and striking out two. While the wind and a slight defensive miscue may have contributed to the ugly numbers, the performance looked too familiar.

“A lot of the same,” is how Eric Wedge described what he saw from Noesi. “He has to get over that hump. You get a couple of quick outs in the first inning, some things start to happen, and then it just dominoed on him. It’s about finishing pitches, about going out there and finishing hitters off and controlling damage. It’s just something he is going to have to continue to work out. That has been his Achilles’ heel so far.”

For Noesi’s part, he said his main trouble was keeping the ball down consistently. Sometimes it was pitch selection, sometimes it was simply missing his target.

Whether or not he continues to get to try and work this out in the big league camp remains to be seen. Moves most likely will not be made until the minor league camp workouts begin March 10.

About the only piece of good from the game was the continued success of Casper Wells, who belted a solo shot off of A.J. Griffin to give him his fifth RBI in the last two days. He now leads baseball this spring with 13 RBI, and has caught the attention of Wedge.

“He’s in here with a head full of steam trying to make this team,” he said. “He has made some legitimate adjustments to his game to his swing and it is paying off for him.”

Because of the rain, a B game has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Planned lineups and pitching schedules will be adjusted accordingly.

Other news from the day: Stefen Romero left the game after injuring his left oblique swinging at a curve ball for strike three of his only at-bat. We should know more about the injury Saturday, but Wedge after the game said that it looked like “it grabbed him pretty good.”

Some better news on the Danny Hultzen front as he threw his light bullpen this morning and will throw a full pen on Sunday. If all goes well the next step could be to get him back into games.